Druid Magazine

'Life is guerrilla war, a constant struggle. You have to know when to retreat and when to attack.' Lindon, an Australian project manager with a failed marriage behind him, is lured to China with the promise of a lucrative salary. His task: to solve the problem of a "nail house," the home of a stubborn old man who refuses to relocate, even as the bulldozers move in and the skyscrapers grow around him. But as Lindon negotiates with the old man's family, he finds sense where there is none, and love where there is war.

This debut mystery from a fresh voice in Southwestern fiction stakes out the common ground between Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy. In a remote corner of the Chickasaw Nation, tribal Lighthorse policeman Bill Maytubby and county deputy Hannah Bond discover the buzzard-ravaged body of Majesty Tate, a young drifter with a blank past. They comb Oklahoma's rock prairie, river bottoms, and hard-bitten small towns for traces of her last days. Tate was seen dancing with Austin Love, a violent local meth dealer fresh out of prison. An Oklahoma City motel clerk connects her with an aspiring politician. An oil-patch roustabout and a shady itinerant preacher provide dubious leads. Ne'er-do-wells start dying off. A fluke lead propels Maytubby deep into Louisiana's bayou country, where a Cajun shrimper puts him on the scent of a bizarre conspiracy. He and Bond reunite in the Chickasaw Nation for the eventual face-off at Nail's Crossing. "As fine a mystery series debut as I've read in a long time."-Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire series "Thrilling...Lackey's exciting story unwinds like a rattlesnake."-Bill Loehfelm, author of The Devil's Muse "A captivating look at a little-known corner of rural Oklahoma...rife with drug problems, yet peopled by tenacious, idiosyncratic characters you can't help rooting for."-Kirkus Reviews

On the frontispiece of this tract is a woodcut, representing the name of God irradiated; below it a hand is placing a nail on a wall (of Norwich Cathedral?), and a second hand turning a double-wheel, with eyes in the rim. The frontispiece woodcut to "The Nail hit on the head" represents three columns, to the central one of which are attached, on the left, as on nails, a crown, an hour-glass (preaching-glass), a pulley; and, on the right, crossed keys, a hat, holy-water sprinkler (?), and a pitcher; to the sides of the column, on the left of the centre, a robe, a girdle (of the High Priest), and two other objects; on the pillar to the right hang a flagon, a vessel of another form, and a pair of bellows. Below is inscribed "Fideliter Ser-" This woodcut is repeated on page 49 of the sermon. On the title page of "The Nail hit on the head : and driven into the city and cathedral wall of Norwich" is a woodcut of a broad-headed nail. The text is a sermon on the verse, "And I wil fasten him a nail in a sure place; and he shal be for a glorious throne to his fathers house. Esa, 22, 23".