Pearl: A Life Too Short; A Death Too Long

When Pearl Sutton's brutally beaten body is found in Jacobs Gully by two young boys playing hooky that day, it uncovers secrets of the small town of Faircloth, Virginia. Was Pearl a "loose" woman? Or merely a flirt. While many men tried to tame her, it was only one who had--in her words--knocked her socks off. But, she was married to a man almost twenty years older than she. That didn't stop her, though. Every red-blooded man between the ages of 17 and 47 wanted to "get to first base" with her. Before Sheriff Atherton and his deputies could identify the person who killed Pearl, the body of another young woman is found. One homicide in a town as small as Faircloth was a plate-full, two was over-kill. This homicide will be more difficult to solve because of lack of identity of the victim. There are clues galore, but none that highlight the perpetrator. It's said that trouble comes in threes -- which it did when an assault occurred in the home of Deputy Aikens. The deputy himself is so traumatized that he has no memory of the event, and can't say what happened. His wife is missing. When she's finally found beside a remote highway early in the morning, by a motorist on his way to work, she's in what the doctors call "catatonic" state, Sheriff Atherton has to reach for another plate. And,he has no suspect in sight for any of the incidents. It is when secrets of the small town and its inhabitants come together, that all three incidents are solved.