Owen Allison Mystery

Not much happens in Contrary, West Virginia -- a sleepy town with failing coal mines, a few local moonshine stills, and an urgent need for revenue. A Federal grant for a nonexistent bus system seemed to be just the ticket.

When road construction by West Virginia's highway department uncovers human remains near the small town of Barkley, everyone involved stops dead in their tracks.

With her land threatened by the construction of a shopping mall, Lizzie parks herself at the edge of her property, shotgun in her lap, vowing to do whatever it takes to stop the dump trucks; then, suddenly, a truck driver is dead. Did Aunt Lizzie really shoot him?

A local dam breaks, sending a black ribbon of coal sludge cascading miles and miles through the hollows across the region. It turns out that Owen knows the owner of the coal mine. What's more, the owner knows that finding out why things fail is Owen's specialty, and he hires him on the spot to figure out just what went wrong.

After the death of J. Burton Caldwell, president of the First National Bank of Contrary, West Virginia, federal bank examiners find three-quarters of a billion dollars missing.