The Old Buzzard Had It Coming
An Alafair Tucker Mystery

Alafair Tucker is a strong woman and the core of her familys life on a farm in Oklahoma where backbreaking work and the daily logistics of caring for her husband and their nine children, and of being a good neighbor, requires determination and a clear head. Shes also a woman of strong opinions, and it is her opinion that her neighbor, Harley Day, is a drunkard and a reprobate. So, when Harleys body is discovered frozen in a snowdrift one January day in 1912, she isnt surprised that his long-suffering family isnt particularly broken up. When Alafair helps Harleys wife prepare the body for burial, she discovers that Harleys demise was anything but natural: there is a bullet lodged behind his ear. And when she hears that Harleys son, John Lee, is the prime suspect in his fathers murder, she grows concernedher seventeen-year-old daughter Phoebe is in love with the boy. At first, Alafairs only fear is that Phoebe is in for a broken heart, but as she begins to unravel the events that led to Harleys death, she discovers that Phoebe might be more than just John Lees sweetheart: she may be his accomplice in murder. But a man like Harley turns many people against him, and whoever said there are some things even a mother cant fix never met Alafair Tucker. Pitch-perfect for the Oklahoma frontier, Donis Caseys first novel in the Alafair Tucker mystery series is both a compelling mystery and a remarkable evocation of the hard work and family joys of life one hundred years ago.