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A reporter for the Austin Free Press, Callie McFee, sometimes compares notes with her brother, State McFee, the youngest homicide cop in Texas history, recently assigned as lead investigator of a homeless man's murder. By chance, Callie had encountered Barney on her daily runs through a waterfront park and felt compelled to chat with him. The quiet but charismatic man became a popular fixture among city residents for his ability to listen to their problems without judgment. His death seems to be a random street crime, but as Callie and her brother dig deeper into the facts, it seems that Barney may not be who he claimed to be.
The local story becomes a national sensation as Callie and her brother tease out truths from layers of possibility. Callie suspects that Barney's true identity and one of his "bench buddies" are intertwined in the murder motive, but nothing is clear until Barney's brother steps forward with solid details about the man's identity. As Callie interviews people enamored by Barney, a woman with a checkered past soon meets her own grisly demise. Callie and her brother's personal lives are further complicated by their status as the offspring of a formidable two-term senator and former Texas governor. Buddy McFee is now secretly grappling with dementia, but he still has a huge influence among Austin's power movers and shakers.
Award-winning mystery and crime writer Conrad hits his stride with this third Callie McFee mystery. This tale "twists and turns like a Texas tornado" (as a popular country song describes a relationship) with many compelling plot shifts and redirects that propel the story into ever-swifter spirals. The tight, refreshing prose is a plus, melding well with the cerebral but understandable storytelling that marks Conrad's work as superior in the mystery genre.
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