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Wayne Zurl

Sam Jenkins is the new police chief in town and everyone wonders, will Prospect, Tennessee ever be the same?

Here are six novelettes where Jenkins gets to show off his skills learned as a former New York detective.

A LABOR DAY MURDER and A MURDER IN KNOXVILLE take the reader into the world of domestic violence with a smattering of political corruption. In BULLETS OFF-BROADWAY, the investigation leads Sam into the life of a victim who spent his leisure time reenacting the days of the old west and was killed with an antique revolver. The hard-boiled story of SCRAP METAL AND MURDER begins with a simple larceny and quickly escalates into the murder of a building contractor, infidelity and more suspects than you can shake a claw hammer at. And the off-beat stories, BY THE HORNS OF A COW and its sequel SERPENTS & SCOUNDRELS show the more bizarre side of police work as Jenkins looks for a stolen fourteen-foot-tall statue of a dairy cow and ends up among a group of snake handling fundamentalists who use their serpents in a deadly manner.

Melange Books

A Sam Jenkins Mystery

Murder in Knoxville & Other Sam Jenkins Mysteries

When your high school classmate shows up on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, can your police career get any more interesting? Prospect, Tennessee’s police chief Sam Jenkins handles a cold case robbery-homicide as a favor to a beautiful treasury agent and clears the forty-three year old mystery of THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN BANK JOB.

In MURDER IN A WISH-BOOK HOUSE, Sam investigates the most grisly killing of his career. Then, in V IS FOR…VITAMIN?, he works with an eighty-four year old partner to solve a suspicious death in a nursing home where all the suspects are well beyond their prime.

Hollywood meets the Smokies in FATE OF A FLOOZY when an academy award winner is murdered during her love affair with a much younger man. And HURRICANE BLOW UP and THE BUTLERS DID IT pits Jenkins against some very lethal characters when he tackles eastern European hoods who intend on causing mayhem in Prospect, and bank robbers who flee to the far corners of southern Appalachia to escape capture.

The Great Smoky Mountain Bank Job: and other Sam Jenkins Mysteries

A collection of six crime stories that take you on a trip through the more off-beat regions of law enforcement.

Follow Prospect, Tennessee’s police chief Sam Jenkins as he meets Gypsy conmen and a beautiful fortune teller in GYPSIES, TRAMPS & THIEVES, a gun show hustler and his right-wing militia cronies in HEAVEN’S GATE and a collection of pool hustlers competing for enough prize money they’d kill for in ALVIS IS IN THE BUILDING.

A Chinese restaurant owner loses a little finger and feels the grip of vicious thugs from a Malaysian triad in THE SWAN TATTOO. The murder of an Elvis impersonator for a few bits of gold takes you on board GRACELAND ON WHEELS, and in NOTHING FITZ, an unlikely coalition of crooks on a National Guard air base are responsible for a brutal murder.

Graceland on Wheels & More Sam Jenkins Mysteries

A serial killer dubbed The Riverside Strangler by the Knoxville press corps has murdered eight Internet prostitutes in East Tennessee, the most recent found floating in Prospect’s Crystal Creek.

Chief Sam Jenkins joins a task force led by the county’s chief deputy, Ryan Leary, a cop known for his flamboyant police work and questionable methods.

When investigators hit a stone wall in the case, the killer strikes again—or was it a copycat? The type of victim and location follow the Strangler’s pattern, but some details are significantly different.

During the investigation, Leary is charged in a bizarre and seemingly unrelated case of police brutality and relieved of duty. Sam is faced with assuming command of the task force or turning over responsibility to the FBI.

The outcome of the case and subsequent actions taken by the Prospect City Council affect everyone at Sam’s police department and suggest that life there will never be the same.

A Bleak Prospect

After losing their jobs at Prospect PD, veteran detectives Sam Jenkins and John Gallagher set up shop as private investigators. But their life in the private sector is short-lived when their former colleague, Bettye Lambert, the new county sheriff, enlists them to investigate a seemingly cold missing person’s case.

Twenty-seven year old Tommy Lee Helton disappeared from the beautiful and idyllic Orr’s Valley section of Prospect where he lived. None of his family or friends can find him and no one can provide a clue to where he may have gone.

The closest thing to a lead comes from a beautiful woman who is a member of the environmentalist group to which Tommy Lee belongs. Her information leads Jenkins and Gallagher to a paper mill reportedly discharging toxic chemical waste into the river system of North Carolina and Tennessee.

The security supervisors at the mill, a former federal agent from the Diplomatic Security Service and a retired Marine Corps sniper had a serious confrontation with Helton during a demonstration organized by the activists. They soon become prime suspects in his disappearance.

As the search and investigation continues, an unrelated murder victim is found, more anomalies spring up, people are blatantly withholding information and nothing seems to be as it appears.

The question remains, with all those obstacles, can Jenkins and Gallagher find the missing person and restore order to their little chunk of paradise on “the peaceful side of the Smokies?”

Sins of Eden

This story collection includes the veteran cop's humorous mysteries:

Have You Considered Voodoo?
New York Detective Sam Jenkins is handed a bizarre case that develops into the serial killing of animals. It doesn’t take long to find a prime suspect; he’s a juvenile headed to no good end, but the system doesn’t make life easy for our tenacious squad dick.

Reenacting a Murder
When local antique dealer, G. Nobel Whitehead, is savagely killed at a historical reenactment, Police Chief Sam Jenkins wades through a cadre of quirky local characters to learn how the victim’s shady dealings led to his demise.

Paper Trail
A lone, mentally disturbed young gunman murdered his mother, two adults, and six small children at the elementary school in Prospect, Tennessee before ending his own life.

The man carried three guns; one pistol had been legally purchased by his mother for her protection. The origins of the other pistol and the fully automatic Russian assault rifle were anyone’s guess.

After Police Chief Sam Jenkins conducts an investigation to track down the past ownership of those guns, he confirms a few suspicions and uncovers more interesting facts.

The Fergusson Shooting
Jamal Fergusson’s mistake costs him his life and forever changes Police Officer Billy Puckett’s.

On a cool, damp evening in Prospect, Tennessee, seventeen-year-old Jamal tries to buy beer from a convenience store. When asked for ID, the boy decides to steal the beer and assaults a store employee.

All this was witnessed by Officer Puckett who attempts to arrest Jamal for robbery. Only the big teenager has other ideas. While resisting arrest, Fergusson violently attacks Puckett and tries to take his handgun.

Moments later, unarmed Jamal Fergusson lies dead in the parking lot.

The next day, the community expresses their outrage and a famous activist descends on East Tennessee, declaring that he will help the Fergusson family seek justice for their murdered son.

Not much stands between the angry citizens and Puckett except Police Chief Sam Jenkins.

A Fire and Old Ice
Prospect, Tennessee’s mayor, Ronnie Shields, walks into Sam Jenkins’ office with his hat in his hand. Ronnie’s wife wants to sponsor a benefit fashion show to raise money for an animal shelter. They need the chief for two things: Convince his friend, TV reporter, Rachel Williamson, to emcee the show and find amateur models to wear the outfits.

The show begins perfectly, until someone sets fire to the spring collection of a flamboyant Knoxville designer named Mr. Alex.

Jenkins’ arson investigation puts him up against a trio of redneck troublemakers and takes him back seventy years to Europe and a closely guarded family secret.

Think of this one as an episode of NYPD BLUE written by Woody Allen.