From Suspect to Sleuth!

When Rhode Island Attorney General Preston Knox is brutally murdered in his home,

just weeks before getting elected Governor, the state police immediately pull in Julius

Haddock for questioning.

After all, Julius, the now-retired chief of police in the town of Little Penwick, had a beef

with the AG, when Knox drummed up some fake charges and put him in jail. (Glitter

Girl, Book 1).

But Julius didn't do it, and has an unshakeable alibi-he was out having breakfast with

his son Gus Haddock, the current chief in Little Penwick. So the outgoing governor

appoints Julius to the task force investigating Preston Knox's murder because she was

impressed with his recent work on a cold case (Cold Secrets, Book 2).

And that's how Julius Haddock went from suspect to sleuth, working with the state police

to track down leads and eliminate suspects, one by one. Along the way, Julius is befriended

by a local kid on a bike, who has some family secrets of his own; and with his partner

Siggi, Julius has to try and convince the last surviving member of an old Little Penwick

family to consider donating his land to the Little Penwick Land Trust. But there are old

family ghosts in the way there, too.

Family Affairs, Book 4 in the Swamp Yankee Mystery series, is another page-turning

adventure of police procedural, small-town relationships and family secrets. Just the kind

of stew that makes James Y. Bartlett's inventive new series so popular with readers.