The Obituary

Ron Franscell

May 2015 · WildBlue Press

About this ebook

A corpse sends a simple scientist into a dark world of conspiracy and murder in this crime thriller by the USA Today–bestselling author The Deadline.

When a world-renowned forensic anthropologist journeys to Winchester, Wyoming, to examine the long-dead remains of a woman who claimed to be Etta Place—the Old West’s most mysterious and legendary female outlaw—he’s not expecting to find a man’s headless corpse in her crypt. The grisly discovery plunges him and Jefferson Morgan—the editor of the weekly Winchester Bullet—into a shadowy and deadly world of satellite-savvy highway pirates, rural meth labs, computer hackers and old-fashioned corruption. And they might not survive the fall….

“Gorgeously written, complex and satisfying—a damn near perfect mystery.”—John Lescroart, New York Times–bestselling author

“A great job with a fresh, original idea. The Obituary weaves elements of the best forensics writers at work today, as well as the best detective writers—a great mix.”—Michael Palmer, New York Times–bestselling author

About the author

Ron Franscell's writing has been compared to Truman Capote, Charles Frazier and Robert Olen Butler--diverse, poetic, evocative and muscular.This lifelong newspaperman burst onto the literary scene in 1998 with his first novel ANGEL FIRE, a poignant, mythic tale of two brothers wrestling with personal ghosts in the small town where they grew up. ANGEL FIRE was subsequently named among the San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West.After his 1999 mystery, THE DEADLINE, Ron became a senior writer for the Denver Post, writing about the entangled past, present and future of the American West. THE DEADLINE and its sequel, THE OBITUARY, have been re-published in print and digital editions by WildBlue Press, one of the most innovative new publishing ventures in America.In 2008, his first nonfiction, THE DARKEST NIGHT, won rave reviews from true-crime legends Ann Rule, Vincent Bugliosi and Gerry Spence. The book explored a monstrous crime against two of Ron's childhood friends in the small town where they grew up, and how that crime has echoed across almost four decades. It is now a national bestseller.SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB is an intimate account of Ron's extraordinary road trip to the Yukon with his son, where they drank a cocktail containing a mummified human toe and spent the longest day of the year under an Arctic sun that never set. Magical.THE CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE TO OUTLAW TEXAS (November 2010) is a quirky travel guide taking true-crime and history travelers to some 400 outlaw- and crime-related sites all over the Lone Star State. The series continueD with OUTLAW ROCKIES (2011), and OUTLAW DC (2012), and OUTLAW PENNSYLVANIA (2013). OUTLAW NEW MEXICO and OUTLAW ARIZONA were published in 2014.DELIVERED FROM EVIL explores the entangled lives of mass-murderers and their victims, tracing the lives of 10 ordinary people who survived some of America's worst massacres. Auspiciously, it debuted on the day a deranged young gunman killed six and wounded 13 at a Tucson supermarket in one of the most shocking crimes of our day.