Hot Enough to Kill (Jolene Jackson Mystery Series) (Jolene Jackson Mysteries)

Dead Man Falls is the 2001 Winner of the WILLA Literary Award for Best Original Paperback!

Jolene Jackson pulls into her home town of Kickapoo, Texas, during a sweltering heat wave wishing for all the world to be anywhere else. The mayor of Kickapoo has been murdered, and Jolene's duty is to keep her flamboyant septuagenarian mother, Lucille, out of jail and off the suspect list. Caught between salacious gossip at the Dairy Queen and a power-hungry deputy, Jolene soon realizes that the only way to escape Kickapoo with her life--and her sanity--is to sleuth out the murderer in a town full of likely suspects.

The first in a series of Jolene Jackson mysteries, Hot Enough to Kill is a classic whodunit in the spirit of Agatha Christie or even Nancy Drew. Author Paula Boyd populates Kickapoo with larger-than-life characters (this is Texas, after all) and enough surprises to keep you guessing until the very end. Crank up the A/C, pour yourself a glass of iced tea, and enjoy the ride. --Ginger Dzerk