Mad Notions: A True Tale of Murder and Mayhem

Mad Notions: A True Tale of Murder and Mayhem by Reynolds, John Lawrence. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781552630921.

"Twenty years ago, if you had the right connections in this town you could kill most anybody you wanted and get away with it." - Del Smith Sevierville, Tennessee and its neighboring communities-Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg-were attractive, God-fearing examples of ideal small-town USA. But only on the surface. When a black Jeep carrying the battered body of a young man plunged over a cliff in nearby Smoky Mountains National Park, it launched more than an investigation into a particularly brutal murder. It also provided an award-winning mystery novelist-who doggedly pursued the story behind the first-degree murder conviction of his oldest friends son-with tales of tawdry ambition and sexual exploitation. They include massive drug deals, orgies in a hillside mansion, vengeful legal maneuvers, the occasional suspicious death and a cast of characters worthy of a Tennessee Williams drama. Among them are: a District Attorney intent on riding a murder conviction all the way to Congress; a God-fearing, gun-toting preachers son who described his wifes sexual escapades in X-rated detail on the pages of his own newspaper; a wealthy bank president whose generous nature led to his violent death; an unfortunate drug dealer whose final reward was ejection from an aircraft two thousand feet above the ocean; and Alicia Shayne Lovera, a former high school Junior Miss who would stop at nothing to persuade her many lovers to help kill her college professor husband. In Mad Notions, John Lawrence Reynolds strips away layers of lies, deception and hypocrisy to expose the dark side of the American dream in a story that grows ever more fascinating and bizarre on its way to a stunning conclusion.