The listing, Black like Blood by Russ Hall has ended.
Hoel’s Dam is a very small town in Texas with many old secrets. Esbeth Walters and Tillis Macrory have arrived in the town separately and they find the natives very protective of the old families. Esbeth is a retired school teacher who is working as the police dispatcher and Tillis is a Texas Ranger licking his wounds after his wife left him. The two are not entirely welcomed by the local constabulary, who soon find they may need an outsider’s perspective on some very old cases.
Mayor Denny Spurlock was found murdered with a stolen, throw away gun near his body. Now Denny’s son Donnie has found the skeleton of Denny’s long missing brother on the bottom of the resevoir. Donnie and his girlfriend Karyn were diving at night looking for a box of fabled diamonds that tore the town apart more than 50 years ago. Donnie is convinced all this is connected to his father’s death and is determined to learn what happened so he can put it behind him and move on with his life.
A former school teacher, Esbeth brings a certain amount of methodical research to the investigation and Tillis, many years of police investigating. Working with the local police chief, Eldon, and new deputy, the very attractive, hard to resist, Gala, Tillis goes up against some very powerful local legends to uncover the truth about some diamonds that may have been missing for half a century, or that may have never existed.