Hank Worth pulled the dry-cleaning bag off his dress uniform and laid everything on the bed. He didn’t want to go today. He didn’t like funerals. But as sheriff of Branson County, Missouri, he knew his attendance was required. Just like it was for all the top law enforcement in the Ozarks. The region’s medical examiner was dead and everyone needed to show up, even though no one had liked the guy.

Hank had interacted with him more than most, which was less a matter of the man’s likability and more a matter of Branson’s high murder rate. Ever since Hank started as sheriff two years ago, there’d been one body after another. Out-of-towners, born-and-bred Ozarkers, old, young, rich, poor. He’d gotten every demographic.

And he’d surely be teased about it at the funeral. That was fine. He’d do the same if the situation were reversed. Some good ribbing might even make the whole thing go faster. He had a lot of other things to do today. There was a robbery report that needed investigating, and another complaint from elderly Mrs. Stevenson about teenagers, loud noises, and “suspicious shadows” down in Rockaway Beach. That one would just take some hand-holding; he never minded, though. Partly because she was a sweetheart and partly because she always had freshly baked cookies.

Although maybe he should cut back on those, he thought as he pulled on his uniform pants. He hadn’t worn them in a while, and they were telling him things he didn’t want to hear. He was halfway into his shirt when Benny burst into the bedroom.

“I can’t find my lunchbox.” He dropped to the floor and started looking under the bed. Hank stopped dressing and looked at his four-year-old son.

“And you think you left it down there?”

“No.” It came out muffled as he wiggled underneath. All Hank could see were skinny legs and stocking feet. “I didn’t come down here. Guapo did.”

He popped out triumphantly. If triumphant was really the word for staticky hair full of dust bunnies and a t-shirt scrunched up around his armpits. But he did have the lunchbox, held aloft like the prize it was.

“How did the dog even get a hold of it?” Hank asked.

“Um, maybe I left it on the floor?” Then he was off, dashing out of the room at the call of Hank’s father-in-law. Duncan was the one who took Benny to preschool every day. And the one who dropped six-year-old Maribel off at first grade. Hank didn’t know what he and Maggie, the lead doctor at the local hospital’s emergency department, would do without her dad. He was crotchety and blunt, but he was a godsend when it came to the kids, who both adored him.

Hank ran a comb through his thick brown hair and followed Benny into the kitchen. Guapo was snacking on dropped cereal and Maribel waited patiently by the door. Duncan shooed away the dog and hustled the kids into the garage before he finally turned and caught a glimpse of Hank. He laughed so hard he had to stop and lean against the doorjamb.

“You look like Halloween. Best Prussian soldier costume.”

“I do not.” Hank pinched the nicely sharp crease in his pants. “Besides, I have to. I’ve got a funeral.”

“For who? Frederick the Great?”

Hank rolled his eyes. “Shouldn’t you be leaving? You’re going to make them late.”

“Eh, I’ll write them a note. Tardy due to unforeseen hilarity.”

Hank watched them go, then hurried to gather his things and get on the road. There’d be no hilarity for him, but at least he knew the funeral would be the worst thing he’d have to do today. Everything else could only be better.

Home Fires, A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery Book #6
Genre: Police Procedural
Release: April 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Fans of Steven F. Havill’s Posadas County and Lisa Regan’s Josie Quinn series will enjoy this fascinating and complex story set in small-town Missouri.

Branson Sheriff Hank Worth is one of the first on the scene of a mass casualty incident – a local fireworks warehouse has exploded, killing everyone inside. As over a dozen victims are pulled from the smoldering ruins, the painstaking identification process begins.

Chief Deputy Sheila Turley returns early from medical leave to assist in the office, while Hank delves deeper into the increasingly complicated situation at the morgue. He discovers that the previous forensic pathologist was hasty at best and negligent at worst. What starts as an offhand request to look into the errors turns into a discovery that shakes Hank’s world off its axis . . .

With Hank secretly investigating his discovery at the morgue, his short-handed team is stretched to the brink as it investigates the cause of the explosion. Then a shocking revelation leaves Sheila and her fellow deputies scrambling for answers to an unexpected crime. Just what happened in the warehouse in the moments before the blast? Can they unravel the mysteries in time to save Branson from yet more heartbreak? And can Hank, adrift and alone, figure out what happened before it destroys everything he holds dear?

About the author
Formerly a crime reporter for daily newspapers throughout the United States, Claire Booth has used this experience to write five previous Sheriff Hank Worth mystery novels based on small-town American life. She is also the author of one non-fiction book, The False Prophet: Conspiracy, Extortion, and Murder in the Name of God. She lives in California.