Book description
Barry Clayton has a job he doesn't want. When his father became
stricken with Alzheimer's, Barry left the Charlotte police force for the
small mountain community of Gainesboro, North Carolina, where his family
runs the local funeral home. “Buryin' Barry” reluctantly assumed the
mantle of town undertaker, trying to fit his life into this somber
profession. Almost at once it turns deadly. At the graveside service for
an elderly woman, a grieving grandson strides in clad like Clint
Eastwood in a duster, rips out a shotgun, and murders his family. Then
the shooter turns the weapon on Barry. “Take a message to my
grandmother,” Dallas Willard shouts. “Tell her they tried to take the
land. Tell her I love her.” The blast hits Barry in the shoulder. Barry
is not cut from the same black cloth as his father, and his irreverent
wit and independence have already won him the friendship of the county
sheriff, one-eyed war hero Tommy Lee Wadkins. Besides, Barry's a police
pro. Trusting his wounds to the hands of local surgeon Susan Miller,
Barry begins a search for both the killer and the reason for his crime.
It isn't long before a second shooting occurs-but when Dallas Willard's
body is discovered at the bottom of a quarry pond, it becomes clear that
Gainesboro is caught in the grip of something more than a deadly family
quarrel.... Ably following in the footsteps of Margaret Maron, TV and
film producer de Castrique sets his first novel among the folk who
populate Gainesboro, N. C., and the surrounding hill country. The book
opens with a powerful bang: mentally unbalanced Dallas Willard appears
at the burial service for his grandmother, Martha Willard, shoots two
relatives to death, then turns his shotgun on undertaker (and former
Charlotte policeman) Barry Clayton, whom he wings in the shoulder.
Dallas's motive? To preserve land worth million that other members of
his family planned to sell right away. Why shoot the undertaker, though?
Because Dallas wants Barry to go to heaven and tell Martha nobody is
going to take her property! Dallas escapes in his pickup, but when his
body turns up at the bottom of a quarry pond after a second shooting
incident, Barry realizes he himself could become the unknown killer's
next victim. The author sensitively depicts the hill people, including
Barry's childish and fearful father, owner of the mortuary, who's losing
his battle with Alzheimer's. Fortunately, Barry has gorgeous Dr. Susan
Miller to love him and sew him up when he's injured. Adept at both the
grizzly and the graceful, de Castrique has produced a marvelous mystery
you won't want to put down.” Mark de Castrique grew up in the
mountains of western North Carolina where his mysteries are set. Mark is
a veteran of the television and film production industry, and he serves
as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte. Dangerous Undertaking is the first in the series
