Foul Purity

H. B. Alapata is the police chief of a small Southern town, and he is also a preacher. Before he can work on a brutal murder, he has other problems. The town council wants him fired, and a hit man posing as Jerry Lee Lewis has been hired to kill him. A bar owner who drinks herself senseless every Christmas Eve climbs the town water tower and expects the chief to come up and bring her down. A python named Beverly, who is fond of squeezing, also adds to the chaos.

The cast includes misogynistic truckers, trailer-park idlers, and a Jerry Lee Lewis impersonator. The chief, who reads Greek, works through a string of unexpected developments and violent dead ends as he tries to solve the killing. The story mixes crime with the humor of its eccentric characters.

The setting is a community where several cultures meet, and the author writes its dialect, people and daily life with close attention to detail.