WHERE ARMADILLOS GO TO DIE Sylvester Bradshaw owns the Bouree restaurant, home of the best catfish in Brenham, Texas. He’s also known to be one of the most unpleasant residents of Brenham, and not just because he’s stubborn, racist, and mean. Sylvester also happens to have invented a machine that several venture capitalists and one former NFL star would like to invest in, but he’s not sharing. When the restaurant is ransacked and he goes missing, the only person willing to take his disappearance seriously is Jeremiah Spur. The retired Texas Ranger and rancher is a dedicated customer if not a friend, and decidedly more competent than the local law enforcement. Book #3 in the Jeremiah Spur series Rights Information Publisher: St. Martin's, Hardcover (November 24, 2009) Territory: North American Rights Available: Audio; Translation; Film/TV Reviews: "Hime nicely blends broad humor and sharp characterizations" - Publisher's Weekly "[The] lively, unconventional characters and authorial brio (Scared Money, 2004, etc.) guarantee a few hours of blissful escapism." - Kirkus "Character—and sleepy Brenham is full of them—is one good reason to applaud author Hime. Another is his fine portrayal of the sensibilities and rhythms of small-town Texas...Hime also has a fine ear for the colorful turns of phrase and metaphors of Texas and the small-town South...crime fans will find the tale terrific entertainment." - Booklist Blurbs: “5 Years since James Himes's stunning Edgar Nominated debut, it's been worth the wait. Jim does for Texas what Pelecanos does for Washington, makes it live breathe. Jeremiah Spur, retired Ranger, a part pitch perfect for Tommy Lee Jones, slow burns off the page till he literally blisters into your heart. Rarely has a small town been better depicted than here. The novel had me long for catfish, Shiner, and more of Jeremiah. This is mystery writing at the very height of it's game.” - Ken Bruen “Beautiful writing. Memorable characters. Seamless dialogue. And a timely and original story, tough and gritty as a Texas landscape. Jim Hime writes with a careful touch, an original voice and unexpected tenderness. A gem.” - Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha-winning author of Prime Time “Set a chair up in that wide spot in the road and put your feet up. You're about to enjoy the pitch-perfect magic of James Hime, that raconteur from the Birthplace of Texas where red-blooded, catfish-loving characters meet high-tech greed. Where Armadillos Go To Die, the third in the Jeremiah Spur series, is a shot of pure black coffee straight to the vein.” - Louise Ure, Shamus Award-winning author of Liars Anonymous “A mystery can impel us along on plot with nary a memorable sentence in it, while we toss aside any mystery that preens itself on ornate vocabulary and sentence structure. Rarely, we pick up a mystery where the setting is pleasingly unfamiliar, the plot is rewardingly intricate, the characters walk and talk as big as life, and where the whole book, line by line, is written, not typed or input or dictated. Such a book we read with delight, page after page. Such a book is James Hime's WHERE ARMADILLOS GO TO DIE. In the Edgar-nominated THE NIGHT OF THE DANCE and the follow-up SCARED MONEY Hime let us hear rich Texas voices. Now in Armadillos all the characters except two tightlipped brothers are gloriously fluent in their own dialects of Texan, and the narrator enriches the characters with hilarious tall talk just a little sharper than their own speech. Every passage in the book delights the ear and the intellect. In Hime's stretch of Texas culpability may go unpunished, an unexpected resource may count for as much as a redeeming character trait, and it doesn't pay to be judgmental. You can't call Armadillos a romp because the whole damned thing reads like a victory lap around nearby Thunderhill Raceway. James Hime is back.” - Hershel Parker “A small-town story of a too-big idea. A Texas tale of good green turned to greed. And a would-be American tragedy averted--thanks to Captain Jeremiah Spur. It's a comfort to know James Hime is back--and that Captain Spur is still on duty.” - Theresa Schwegel Purchase at Amazon.com

WHERE ARMADILLOS GO TO DIE

Sylvester Bradshaw owns the Bouree restaurant, home of the best catfish in Brenham, Texas. He’s also known to be one of the most unpleasant residents of Brenham, and not just because he’s stubborn, racist, and mean. Sylvester also happens to have invented a machine that several venture capitalists and one former NFL star would like to invest in, but he’s not sharing. When the restaurant is ransacked and he goes missing, the only person willing to take his disappearance seriously is Jeremiah Spur. The retired Texas Ranger and rancher is a dedicated customer if not a friend, and decidedly more competent than the local law enforcement.

Book #3 in the Jeremiah Spur series

Rights Information

Publisher: St. Martin's, Hardcover (November 24, 2009)

Territory: North American

Rights Available: Audio; Translation; Film/TV

Reviews:
"Hime nicely blends broad humor and sharp characterizations" - Publisher's Weekly

"[The] lively, unconventional characters and authorial brio (Scared Money, 2004, etc.) guarantee a few hours of blissful escapism." - Kirkus

"Character—and sleepy Brenham is full of them—is one good reason to applaud author Hime. Another is his fine portrayal of the sensibilities and rhythms of small-town Texas...Hime also has a fine ear for the colorful turns of phrase and metaphors of Texas and the small-town South...crime fans will find the tale terrific entertainment." - Booklist

Blurbs:
“5 Years since James Himes's stunning Edgar Nominated debut, it's been worth the wait. Jim does for Texas what Pelecanos does for Washington, makes it live breathe. Jeremiah Spur, retired Ranger, a part pitch perfect for Tommy Lee Jones, slow burns off the page till he literally blisters into your heart. Rarely has a small town been better depicted than here. The novel had me long for catfish, Shiner, and more of Jeremiah. This is mystery writing at the very height of it's game.” - Ken Bruen

“Beautiful writing. Memorable characters. Seamless dialogue. And a timely and original story, tough and gritty as a Texas landscape. Jim Hime writes with a careful touch, an original voice and unexpected tenderness. A gem.” - Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha-winning author of Prime Time

“Set a chair up in that wide spot in the road and put your feet up. You're about to enjoy the pitch-perfect magic of James Hime, that raconteur from the Birthplace of Texas where red-blooded, catfish-loving characters meet high-tech greed. Where Armadillos Go To Die, the third in the Jeremiah Spur series, is a shot of pure black coffee straight to the vein.” - Louise Ure, Shamus Award-winning author of Liars Anonymous

“A mystery can impel us along on plot with nary a memorable sentence in it, while we toss aside any mystery that preens itself on ornate vocabulary and sentence structure. Rarely, we pick up a mystery where the setting is pleasingly unfamiliar, the plot is rewardingly intricate, the characters walk and talk as big as life, and where the whole book, line by line, is written, not typed or input or dictated. Such a book we read with delight, page after page. Such a book is James Hime's WHERE ARMADILLOS GO TO DIE.
In the Edgar-nominated THE NIGHT OF THE DANCE and the follow-up SCARED MONEY Hime let us hear rich Texas voices. Now in Armadillos all the characters except two tightlipped brothers are gloriously fluent in their own dialects of Texan, and the narrator enriches the characters with hilarious tall talk just a little sharper than their own speech. Every passage in the book delights the ear and the intellect.
In Hime's stretch of Texas culpability may go unpunished, an unexpected resource may count for as much as a redeeming character trait, and it doesn't pay to be judgmental. You can't call Armadillos a romp because the whole damned thing reads like a victory lap around nearby Thunderhill Raceway. James Hime is back.” - Hershel Parker

“A small-town story of a too-big idea. A Texas tale of good green turned to greed. And a would-be American tragedy averted--thanks to Captain Jeremiah Spur. It's a comfort to know James Hime is back--and that Captain Spur is still on duty.” - Theresa Schwegel

Purchase at Amazon.com