When a teacher disappears from a local missionary school in the rural town of West Wheeling, acting sheriff Homer Deters investigates. Before long, he's got three more missing persons: local ne'er-do-well Ash Jackson, a pregnant teenager, and an ATF agent on Jackson's trail. Further investigation turns up the bones of a murder victim in Goode Swamp and a second corpse dumped by the highway. Homer must determine just whose remains these are, and who — if any — among the missing might be their killer. The investigation is complicated by a car theft, a twenty-three vehicle pileup in the center of town, a missing pet tiger, and the arrival of more ATF agents in search of their vanished colleague. With no help from the feds, Homer turns to his moonshiner buddy, Rye Willis, and the town's eccentric postmistress, Nina Ross. Their aid and his own nose for the truth enable Homer to locate the missing, identify the bodies, and bring a murderous impostor to justice.Who should play these characters in a film adaptation of the novel? See who the author has in mind.
--Marshal Zeringue