Seneca Wood
by Gary Clites
Published by Casperian Books (June 1 release)(to come)
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Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid
Wayne Zirk is not the brightest person and when he discovers the body of Frank Ashby on Ashby’s free-range chicken ranch, he decides to move the body. Wayne remembered seeing on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” where a boy found a body floating in the water, reported his find, and received a reward. In Wayne’s mind he decided that if the body he discovered was found in the water he would receive a reward–so Wayne moved the body and placed Ashby’s body in the North Fork River. Wayne didn’t get a reward but decided he’d recover something for his trouble in some other way.
It seems that the river was a regular dumping ground for a company called Happy Cluckers, a chicken processing plant that had been operating outside the law. Any official that gives the company trouble winds up in the river, thanks to Scrag Lynch, Happy Cluckers’ security man. The area was secluded except for a group of cyclists that hung out there and tended to mind their own business.
When the bodies were discovered, the police officers working under the guidance of Victor Bane, owner of Happy Cluckers, decided that Woodrow Garrett would be targeted for the murders. Woodrow is an ex-reporter living in a secluded cabin in the area. He had served time for arson. The act of arson was a strike against the mob who he felt was responsible for the death of his wife and baby.
Woodrow suspects that Victor Bane and Randall Pratt, who has been attempting to buy his property for a new project, are in partnership. Woodrow also suspects that Happy Cluckers is a cover for laundering money for the mob and that Victor Bane is keeping some of the money for himself. Woodrow together with Stephanie Hardin, a friend and college student, Erin Ashby, of the West Virginia prosecutors office, and one of the bikers join forces to bring down Bane, Pratt and the mob.
Seneca Wood is an exciting book with nonstop action/thriller and a little comedy thrown in.
Armchair Interviews says: A 5-star debut book for Gary Clites.
Author’s Web site: http://www.GaryClites.com