Book Description:
All Detective Leroy Meriwether wants is to coast to retirement and restore his '65 GTO, but Billy Howell will change all that.
Howell, a well-liked local business owner, disappeared in 1991, the presumed victim of a boating accident. When his skeleton is discovered in a shallow grave on Saint Simons Island, Leroy's considerable but underutilized talents are put to the test.
Initially, the cold case investigation goes nowhere. But the hardheaded and persistent detective is soon bedeviled by a 'high class' problem: too many suspects...Howell's wife, his estranged teenage son, his bookie, his clients and the shadowy ringleaders of a nineties drug-smuggling operation.
Leroy gets closer to the truth and runs afoul of his boss. Trumped-up sexual harassment charges lead to his suspension, but Leroy continues to pursue the investigation at his own peril.
The murderer is determined his twenty-five year-old secrets must never be discovered.
Howell, a well-liked local business owner, disappeared in 1991, the presumed victim of a boating accident. When his skeleton is discovered in a shallow grave on Saint Simons Island, Leroy's considerable but underutilized talents are put to the test.
Initially, the cold case investigation goes nowhere. But the hardheaded and persistent detective is soon bedeviled by a 'high class' problem: too many suspects...Howell's wife, his estranged teenage son, his bookie, his clients and the shadowy ringleaders of a nineties drug-smuggling operation.
Leroy gets closer to the truth and runs afoul of his boss. Trumped-up sexual harassment charges lead to his suspension, but Leroy continues to pursue the investigation at his own peril.
The murderer is determined his twenty-five year-old secrets must never be discovered.
Bio
A Georgia native, Rodney’s business career included a variety of senior management positions and consulting engagements in companies and industries ranging from startups to Fortune 50 firms.
A graduate of the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia, in 2005 Rodney authored Leading Your Business to the Next Level…the Six Core Disciplines of Sustained Profitable Growth, a hands-on guide for companies navigating the perils and pitfalls of a high growth environment.
An avid student of history and political junky, Rodney combined those interests with his lifelong desire to write a novel. His first, Powers Not Delegated, was published in 2012.
Rodney’s second novel, The Xerces Factor, launched in 2015. He meshes his knowledge of history and current events to pen a relevant and plausible tale of intrigue inside the Beltway.
Published in Spring 2016, Murcheson County, a sweeping saga of four families in antebellum Georgia, spans sixty years during our country’s most turbulent times.
And, The Fourth Partner, a murder mystery set on the Georgia coast, launched in September 2016.
His short story, Granny Mae’s Journey appeared in Crimson Cloak Publishing’s Steps in Time anthology.
Projects currently underway include: By the People, For the People, sequel to Powers Not Delegated; Macon–The Novel, a murder mystery set in the racially-charged sixties; tentatively titled Ms. Smythe Goes to Washington, a political thriller chronicling the exploits of a feisty and irreverent congresswoman and her brother, a CIA operative.
Rodney lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. His passions include hiking, woodworking, history, R&B guitar and, of course, University of Georgia football.
