The Ways of the Dead – (Sully Carter 1)

Author/Guide: Neely Tucker

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: The first book from a Washington DC reporter gets under the skin of Washington DC and its underbelly

ISBN: 978-0099591726
Genre: Crime, Thriller

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What you need to know before your trail

Sully Carter is a journalist recently returned from Bosnia but it’s the city of Washington DC that proves to the biggest challenge. A young girl, Sarah, has just been found murdered and she’s the daughter of a powerful DC judge. When three black kids are arrested, is the matter over? Not according to Sully who thinks there is a lot more than meets the eye. Could Sarah’s murder be linked to several cold cases the police didn’t really investigate?

Sully is about to try and find out. But it’s not going to be at all easy getting through the pressure that seem to be piling up from all sides such as the police, government officials and suspicious locals.

Inspired by the real-life 1990s Princeton Place murders where a serial killer terrorised the city’s women for more than three years.

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This is the Washington that you don’t see on the posters or tourist trails but this side to the city, the very one which existed back in the 1990s is the one of a serial killer on the loose. One man so fixated on killing women that he targets and pounces when they least expect it.

Sully comes to see the city through raw and jaded eyes – from his Ducati 916 motorcycle, he scours the poor neighbourhoods, the shabby houses which seem to mock the pristine government buildings. Alongside tree lined avenues are shady backstreets and alleyways – part of the slum in the shadow of the Capitol where Sarah was found murdered.

Sly Hastings, a streetwise gangster is the one Sully gets to help him discover the truth. And he knows some dark and dangerous places – darker than even those seen in Bosnia by Sully himself, an experience which has left him with PTSD and a drink problem. Left him with a keen sense of justice too. Sly Hastings is a mix of violence and charm and a man of two faces is just what the mean Washington Streets need.

The Washington every one knows is linked to the corridors of power and the political double dark and dangerous dealings. Within yards of the political corridors of power, the racial tension of the city plays out, urban crime hand in hand with urban politics, poverty and wealth, two sides of a spinning coin of chance as to which side you end up on and what kind of justice you get. Or what kind of justice the newspapers of the day are willing to give you, depending on who you are and where you’re from.