Author Silas House, writing under the pseudonym S.D. House, steps away from his usual Southern story telling to pen the book he has said he wants to read: a murder mystery called Dead Man Blues. Set in the 1950s in the fictional tiny town of Shady Grove on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, Dave Hendricks has fallen about as far as a man can fall: he has lost his wife, his best friend, his job, and his reputation.
Left with only a
houseboat to call home and his loyal dog, he works odd jobs in the marina where
he rents space for his boat, drinks Jameson, and listens to the blues. A scream
across the lake leads him to a fishing camp where someone has been murdered.
Once a sheriff for his small town, his investigative instincts kick in as he
surveys the murder scene before the current sheriff, his former best friend,
arrives.
Even though the sheriff
has betrayed Dave, he calls on Dave to help investigate the murder for the good
of the community. Dave agrees to work along with, not for, the sheriff to find
the killer who slashed and stabbed his victim.
When a second body is
discovered—this one floating in Cedar Lake--the townsfolk are fearful of a
killer in their community. Dave begins to piece together the puzzle about the
two dead men, their connection to each other, and their connection to the
community, as he closes in on the murderer.
House said on his
Facebook page: “I’ve always wanted to write a murder mystery and now I have,
under a slight pseudonym to differentiate this commercial work from my literary
writing.”
He is
known throughout the South as a quintessential person of letters: a novelist, poet,
music journalist, environmental activist, and columnist. He served as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2023-2024. His
trilogy of Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, and The Coal Tattoo
are not to be missed by fans of Southern fiction. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.
My review will be posted on Goodreads, Instagram,
and Facebook starting August 5, 2025.
I would like to thank Crooked Lane Books and
NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.
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