SILVER FALCHION, DERRINGER, THRILLER, MACAVITY, and SHAMUS AWARD WINNING AUTHOR
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RICHARD HELMS
BUMP AND RUN
A THRILLING NEW SERIES FROM DERRINGER, MACAVITY, THRILLER, AND SHAMUS AWARDS-WINNING AUTHOR RICHARD HELMS!
Forty-five years ago, in the tiny North Carolina Blue Ridge town of Choctaw, an innocent black man was gunned down by a local white police officer, spurring a race riot that made national headlines and scarred the town for years. Only an improbable storybook Super Bowl victory by local boy quarterback Winlock Savage rehabilitated Choctaw and saved it from ruin.
Now, Winlock Savage has been murdered, his body discovered hanging from a hook inside a local barbeque shack’s smokehouse.
The police chief, understaffed and without a detective, asks the State Bureau of Investigation for help. They send their best — if most unconventional — investigator, Wade “The Blade” Durham.
Durham’s search for Savage’s murderer tosses him up against a violent state patrolman, corrupt politicians, desperate ski resort developers, Nashville pop stars, backwoods meth cooks, and an enticing half-century old unsolved murder with far too many connections to Win Savage to be ignored.
Bump and Run, the 26th novel by Silver Falchion, Derringer, Thriller, Macavity, and Shamus Award-winning author Richard Helms, will be available on all online bookseller sites on September 1, 2025!
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR BUMP AND RUN
by RICHARD HELMS
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"EDITORS' PICK! This fresh series starter from Shamus-winner Helms (author of 22 Rue Montparnasse, among many others) introduces a winning new sleuth—Wade “The Blade” Durham, a Glock-wielding, stock car racing agent in North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation—and a tense and gratifyingly twisty double mystery in the “dense, damp fog” of the state’s Choctaw country... Through Durham’s smart gumshoe work and sly, witty encounters and interrogations with a diverse cast, Helms reveals the realities of Choctaw but also his detective’s compelling drift of mind and gift for sizing people up and lowering their guards... A gripping tale of deception and greed, BUMP AND RUN is a smart, polished page-turner, alive with local color, sharp chatter, and a strong sense of how power and politics actually work. Helms delivers a vivid, convincing portrait of a town in turmoil and an agent willing to do whatever it takes to secure a dose of hard-won justice... Takeaway: Stock-car racing sleuth faces shocking murders in this compelling series starter.""
--Publishers Weekly Booklife
"...With a smooth narrative voice (“Despite the gradual westward expansion of high-density cities and towns in the state, there were still pockets isolated by choice; enclaves where family trees resembled French braids”) and enough twists to keep even the most jaded thriller fans on their toes, Helms crafts an engaging narrative with an old-school protagonist who embodies the classic detective (Durham has witty one-liners, an appreciation for attractive women, and killer instincts)...Serious themes of racism, corruption, power, and sex are deftly woven into the multiple mini-mysteries that pop up under the larger question of who killed Savage, adding depth to an otherwise straightforward procedural.
A smart, twisty thriller featuring a clever detective and all the ingredients of a classic whodunit."
--Kirkus Reviews
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