When his father is stricken with Alzheimer's, Barry Clayton is forced to leave his job with the Charlotte police department to take over the family funeral home in tiny Gainesboro, North Carolina, until a bizarre mass murder at a family funeral draws Barry into an alliance with local county sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins to find the killer. Reprint.

Dangerous Undertaking (Poisoned Pen Press Mystery)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

De Castrique, Mark

Mystery

UNKNO

The Sandburg Connection

Worldwide

He knows the secret, she knows the truth…The list. You're on the list. God's chosen Gene.When children's hospital volunteer and high school student Gene Adamson hears the words of the dying man, the gunman who used him as a shield after murdering a prominent geneticist, Gene thinks the man delirious. But then the bodies of killer and victim disappear from the morgue, and a ten-year-old girl desperately needing a heart transplant is mysteriously bumped from her number-one spot on the organ-recipient list. The list. What is the list? Gene, together with Jeanne Everston, the beautiful daughter of the murdered geneticist, appears to have stumbled onto a medical conspiracy so deadly the very knowledge of its existence marks them for death.As a child's life hangs in the balance, Gene believes he's discovered the answer. He thinks he's cracked the conspiracy wide open. He is so wrong.

A Conspiracy of Genes

Children's Books

Mysteries & Detectives

Blackstone Audiobooks

Final Undertaking: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition

ReadHowYouWant

A Murder in Passing (Blackman Agency Investigations, 4)

"This fascinating mystery, merging past and present, brings some little-known history to light and shows that laws change much faster than attitudes..." ―Booklist
Things are slow at the Blackman &amp; Robertson Detective Agency. So when Nakayla Robertson suggests a mushroom hunt at the historic, freed-slave commune The Kingdom of the Happy Land, Sam Blackman reluctantly agrees. Hunting the elusive edible, he stumbles into a rotting log...with a skeleton hidden inside. He's intrigued, but local authorities tell him to butt out.
Then Marsha Montgomery comes to Asheville asking Sam and Nakayla to investigate a 45-year-old burglary at her mother's home. Someone stole a rifle and a photograph taken in 1932 at The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Is this just a coincidence?
Then Marsha's 85-year-old mother Lucille is arrested for murder, and Sam knows something is amiss. Is the skeleton that of Jimmy Lang, Lucille's lover and Martha's father, a white man who disappeared in 1967? A veil of betrayal and deceit hides a killer desperate to protect a dark secret, and not even Sam is safe from the deadly consequences of a murder in passing.

Literature & Fiction

United States

Poisoned Pen Press

The Blackman & Robertson Detective Agency faces a disturbing reality: no clients. So when Nakayla Robertson suggests a mushroom hunt at the historic, freed-slave commune The Kingdom of the Happy Land, Sam Blackman reluctantly agrees. Hunting the elusive edible, he stumbles into a rotting log…with a skeleton hidden inside. As intrigued as Sam is, this isn’t his case. So the local authorities tell him to butt out.Then Marsha Montgomery comes to Asheville asking Sam and Nakayla to investigate a 45-year-old burglary at her mother’s home. Someone stole a rifle and a photograph of Marsha’s mother, grandmother, and great grandmother taken in 1932 by renowned photographer Doris Ulmann. The site of the photograph is The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Marsha’s visit is no coincidence. Sam’s being played. But why?When Marsha’s 85-year-old mother Lucille is arrested for murder, Sam knows there is something amiss. Is the skeleton that of Jimmy Lang, Lucille’s lover and Martha’s father, a white man who disappeared in 1967? It appears that Jimmy had been willing to walk away from a budding family empire to marry Lucille. So why had Lucille, who is black, refused to marry him? Did others stand to benefit from Jimmy’s disappearance? A veil of betrayal and deceit hides a killer desperate to protect a dark secret, and no one, not even Sam, is safe from the deadly consequences of a murder in passing.

Genre Fiction

Risky Undertaking (Buryin' Barry Series, 6)

"The author offers insights into the political, economic, and cultural ramifications of Indian casinos, along with a large cast of believable characters with a wide emotional range." ―Publishers Weekly
When Cherokee burial remains are unearthed on the site expanding a local cemetery, the dual occupations of Barry Clayton, part-time deputy and full-time undertaker, collide. Then, during the interment of the wife of one of Gainesboro, North Carolina's most prominent citizens, Cherokee activist Jimmy Panther leads a protest. Words and fists fly.
When Panther turns up executed on the grave of the deceased woman, Barry is forced to confront her family as the chief suspects. But the case lurches in a new direction with the arrival of Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkin's Army pal, Boston cop Kevin Malone. He's on the trail of a Boston hit man who arrived at the Cherokee reservation only days before the murder. Malone is convinced his quarry is the triggerman.
The accelerating investigation draws Barry onto the reservation where Panther's efforts to preserve Cherokee traditions threatened the development of a new casino, a casino bringing millions of dollars of construction plus huge yearly payouts to every member of the tribe. Leading an unlikely team―his childhood nemesis Archie Donovan and his elderly fellow undertaker Uncle Wayne―Barry goes undercover. But the stakes are higher than he realized in this risky undertaking. And the life of a Cherokee boy becomes the wager. Barry must play his cards very carefully...

When Cherokee burial remains are unearthed on the site expanding a local cemetery, the dual occupations of Barry Clayton, part-time deputy and full-time undertaker, collide. Then, during the interment of the wife of one of Gainesboro, North Carolina’s most prominent citizens, Cherokee activist Jimmy Panther leads a protest. Words and fists fly. When Panther turns up executed on the grave of the deceased woman, Barry is forced to confront her family as the chief suspects. But the case lurches in a new direction with the arrival of Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkin’s Army pal, Boston cop Kevin Malone. He’s on the trail of a Boston hit man who arrived at the Cherokee reservation only days before the murder. Malone is convinced his quarry is the triggerman. But who paid him? And why?The accelerating investigation draws Barry onto the reservation where Panther’s efforts to preserve Cherokee traditions threatened the development of a new casino, a casino bringing millions of dollars of construction plus huge yearly payouts to every member of the tribe. Leading an unlikely team ―his childhood nemesis Archie Donovan and his elderly fellow undertaker Uncle Wayne―Barry goes undercover. But the stakes are higher than he realized in this risky undertaking. And the life of a Cherokee boy becomes the wager. Barry must play his cards very carefully…

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by De Castrique, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by De Castrique, Mark

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by De Castrique, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dangerous Undertaking (Poisoned Pen Press Mystery)

The Sandburg Connection

A Conspiracy of Genes

Final Undertaking: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition

A Murder in Passing (Blackman Agency Investigations, 4)

A Murder in Passing (Blackman Agency Investigations, 4)

A Murder in Passing (Blackman Agency Investigations, 4)

Risky Undertaking (Buryin' Barry Series, 6)

Risky Undertaking (Buryin' Barry Series, 6)

Risky Undertaking (Buryin' Barry Series, 6)