While chatting with fellow author Shelley Blanton-Stroud for an upcoming episode of Mystery Crew Reviews, she asked if my villainous great-grandfather was the impetus for my love of mystery. 

“No,” I replied, because I was well into my second career as an author by the time the family found out about his crime. (FYI-in 1912, my great-grandfather shot and killed his wife and another man, evaded a police manhunt, and was never seen again.)

Perhaps the award for encouraging a love of mystery goes to my maternal grandfather, Joseph Sestito. Apart from his stories about being a deputy sheriff during Prohibition, he once put me in jail.

For many years he was City Marshal of Rome, NY. He delivered summonses to appear in court, claims notices, and liens on wages and property, all of which was recorded in ledgers I now have. 

I was a preschooler when he took me to Rome’s brand-new police station and locked me in a cell. He and his cop buddies had a chuckle at the curly-haired tyke behind bars before turning to business.

I recall investigating the spartan cell and getting bored. But I also recall the positive impression made by my grandfather and his law enforcement colleagues. Badges. Camaraderie. A sense of purpose. Problem-solving.

Well, they’d certainly solved the babysitting problem.

P.S. Get Shelly Blanton-Stroud’s free historical mystery COPY BOY here.

My grandparents, Joe and Ann Sestito, making homemade pasta together.

#excerpt

SENSE OF GRACE by Richard F. McGonegal

This police procedural offers the best first sentence that I’ve read lately. The overall pace and plotting meet that high bar, making this a fast page-turner.

Sheriff Francis Hood of Huhman County, Missouri, is a savvy and compassionate lawman but also a recovering alcoholic wondering if he can manage the “recovering” bit. His alcohol abuse got so bad that his wife and daughter have moved out.

As the book begins, Hood finds ex-con Jacob Grace passed out drunk on a country road with an ear cut off.

Later, Grace can’t or won't identify his attacker.

Thirty years ago, Grace stabbed and killed his wife and two sons. A daughter survived but was disfigured. Now he's out of prison and working as a farm hand not far from the scene of the crime.

Hood’s investigation of the ear-cutting assault leads to the daughter who lives in the house where the crime took place. She’s a reclusive artist and intriguing interlocutor as Jacob is attacked a second time. 

This time, his nose is cut off.

The assaults are bizarre and random . . . Until they make perfect sense.

At the same time, two minor criminals are on a spree, robbing church functions. They don’t seem to have any connection to the troubled Grace family. At first.

Alcoholism as a character’s Fatal Flaw is a well-trodden path for fictional crimefighters, but SENSE OF GRACE manages to approach it in a different way. Throughout the book Hood mulls his new identity as a recovering alcoholic, the need for spiritual support, and what to do about a deputy heading out of control. 

You can’t help but root for Hood, a decent guy getting through one day at a time. I love the way he always introduces himself, “I’m your sheriff, Francis Hood.” Th tagline is great insight into a character who’d do well on the silver screen.

Highly recommended.

That's all for this edition of Mystery Ahead.

Thank you for sharing your time with me. Now go read.😎 

 All the best, 

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