A murder in passing : a Sam Blackman mystery
(Book)

In Asheville North Carolina the Blackman and Robertson Detective Agency faces a disturbing reality no clients. Sam Blackman finds inactivity intolerable. So when partner Nakayla Robertson suggests a mushroom hunt on the site of an historic freed slave commune called The Kingdom of the Happy Land, Sam reluctantly agrees. When he stumbles across a skeleton his adventure mushrooms into a case of murder. But it isnt his case. He has no client, and the local authorities tell him to butt out. Then Marsha Montgomery comes to the office asking Sam and Nakayla to investigate a burglary at her mothers home. Someone stole a rifle and a photograph of Marshas 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. The date of the burglary 1967. Marshas visit is no coincidence. Sams being played. But why? When Marshas eighty five year old mother Lucille is arrested for murder, Sam has his answer and his case. Is the skeleton that of Jimmy Lang Marshas white father and her mothers lover who disappeared in 1967 right after interracial couples were allowed to marry in North Carolina? Jimmys brother says no. Jimmy left to seek his fortune after Lucille rejected his marriage proposal. But others stood to gain from his 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.