Older than goodbye : a Judd Wheeler mystery
(Book)

Judd Wheeler, police chief in tiny Prosperity, NC, has never encountered a more dangerous criminal, or a more resourceful one, than he does in Older Than Goodbye, the new mystery-thriller from Derringer and Thriller Award-winning author Richard Helms. For the most part, Judd Wheeler's job consisted of handing out traffic tickets and quelling the occasional domestic disturbance. He never expected to get shot and lose half a year of his life in recovery, and he never expected Sean "Shug" Burch to come back to town. Both happening within a few months means a bad year. Within days of returning to work, he has to deal with the disappearance of a banker and his Russian mail-order bride, the murder of the most hated man in town, and the return of a boyhood friend he helped send to prison thirty years earlier. "Shug" Burch has gone from convict to world-renowned country-blues singer, and has returned to Bliss County to open a restaurant. Burch's long history of violence worries Wheeler, who already has a plate full of trouble after he begins to think that seemingly unrelated crimes in his community are linked by a single malevolent force he fears he cannot control or stop. The stakes mount as a Russian gangster threatens to kill Chief Wheeler, who must turn to a most unexpected ally for help.