Oregon Hill

Oregon Hill by Owen, Howard. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781579622084.

Willie Black has squandered a lot of things in his life - his liver, his lungs, a couple of former wives and a floundering daughter can all attest to his abuse. Hes lucky to be employed, having managed to drink and smart-talk his way out of a nice, cushy job covering (and partying with) the politicians down at the capitol. Now, hes back on the night corps beat, right where he started when he came to work for the Richmond paper almost 30 years ago. The thing Willies always had going for him, though, all the way back to his hardscrabble days as a mixed-race kid on Oregon Hill, where white was the primary color and fighting was everyones favorite leisure pastime, was grit. His mother, the drug-addled Peggy, gave him that if nothing else. He never backed down then, and he shows no signs of changing. When a co-ed at the local university where Willies daughter is a perpetual student is murdered, her headless body found along the South Anna River, the hapless alleged killer is arrested within days. Everyone but Willie seems to think: Case Closed. But Willie, against the orders and advice of his bosses at the paper, the police and just about everyone else, doesnt think the case is solved at all. He embarks on a one-man crusade to do what hes always done: get the story. On the way, Willie runs afoul of David Junior Shiflett, a nightmare from his youth whos now a city cop, and awakens another dark force, one everyone thought disappeared a long time ago. And a score born in the parking lot of an Oregon Hill beer joint 40 years ago will finally be settled. The truth is out there. Willie Blacks going to dig it out or die trying.