The Back Handed: A Sheriff Gus Mystery (Volume 5)

Sheriff Gus knows it’s going to be a bad week when he sees Sedric Hedgecock’s breathalyzer score. With a blood alcohol level of 0.62 percent, Hedgecock should be dead. If the breathalyzer’s isn’t on the fritz, Hedgecock’s superhuman. Either way, he’s blind drunk, so off to the county jail he goes.

Joining the wannabe Bacchus in Gus’s cells is Jennifer Louis Bachman, awaiting extradition to Kansas on a murder charge. The victim in question is Jennifer’s unborn child, and the murder weapon is an illegal Mexican abortion. With the governor vacillating on whether to extradite, Gus just knows that’s going to get complicated.

Rounding out Gus’s problems is notorious celebrity Sheldon Nickelback. Depending on whom you talk to, Nickelback’s a vigilante hero who defended his community against a teenage thug—or a reactionary idiot who murdered an innocent Hispanic teenager.

The town’s Hispanic community isn’t keen on Nickelback’s arrival, but Gus doesn’t think that’s his problem—not until the local Mexican mob boss shows up at Gus’s house to pointedly suggest Nickelback leave town before anything unpleasant happens.

No, Gus isn’t having a great week, and it doesn’t look like things are getting better anytime soon.