These Mortal Remains

Burton's posthumously published sequel to 2010's Nights of the Red Moon suggests that Beauregard "Bo" Handel, the 63-year-old sheriff of fictional Caddo County in East Texas would have become a well-loved series character had the author not died in 2011. Bo investigates the Aryan League, a local white supremacist group founded by renowned language professor Afton Spencer. Afton is erudite, but his group includes violent, criminal members who may be responsible both for the murder of a local contractor and D-Day veteran and a shooting that left Bo's African-American deputy, Toby Parsons, in a coma. Bo receives help from FBI contacts, who have a mole%E2%80%94notorious "Dixie Mafia" member Jasper Sparks%E2%80%94inside the League, but he also encounters obstruction from an uncooperative ATF agent, interfering politicians, and a grandstanding community leader. Burton's strong sense of local color never becomes regional caricature, preserving the suspense and credibility of this sadly final out-ing for Bo. (July)