Revenge My Valentine by Guilio Dattero

After narrowly escaping death last winter, Lieutenant Clark Dixon hopes for a calm spring and a fresh new start. But what begins as a routine suicide investigation quickly spirals into much more. Questions mount, forcing Dixon to step into the most unlikely of places, the District Attorney's Office, for answers - and suspects.
Dixon and his squad navigate through a maze of power and politics, uncovering dark secrets and the blinding hunger for power.
Amidst the perplexing case, other trouble lurks for Dixon. An old nemesis has a score to settle, and a murderous team of burglars is heading his way.
In the end, a mix-up with evidence on an unrelated case leads Dixon to discover there is far more at stake than a suspicious death.

Valentine’s Day 1957.
After school, 18-year-old Sue Chandler snacks at The Sweet Shop, then goes shopping downtown. That evening, she’s brutally murdered in her country
club home. 50 years later, Detective Clark Dixon re-opens the case, but it’s more than he bargained for… Kidnapping, extorted evidence, and murder leave Dixon searching for answers – on the wrong end of a gun.

Guilio Dattero, pictured at right, has been with the Reidsville Police Department since 1982. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and the F.B.I. National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He lives in Reidsville with his wife and three children. Contact him at guilio@guiliodattero.com

Where is Stuartsboro?

On my map Stuartsboro is located a few miles west of Reidsville, N.C. I thought that I would place the town a little closer to the mountains, in the western Piedmont, nestling it in a perfect spot. I named the town for my favorite novelist, Stuart Woods.
In my book, Stuartsboro exists near several cities, such as Greensboro and Winston-Salem, but in some scenes, I distorted actual distances between them - I even had to re-engineer Highway 29 to run east-west (I hope D.O.T. won't mind). Come to think of it, I guess that means the Southern Railroad, also mentioned, will have to run the same direction. Oh, the trials and tribulations of creating your own vision of a town.
There's a lot in Stuartsboro that may remind you of Reidsville: Short Sugar's, Sanitary Cafe, Hodge Podge, Farmer's Table, Dragon Garden. Street names. Composites of characters. Even the old Luckies Baseball team. And the Stuartsboro Police Department as photographed on the cover ... Doesn't it bear a striking resemblance to the one in Reidsville?
Guess the old adage is true: the farther you travel from your home the closer you come to returning.

Thanks to Tim Talley for the great cover photography.

Also by Guilio Dattero ...

Purchase Bloody November online at PublishAmerica.com

Excerpt:

"Clark knew he had to get to his car and call for help ... On signal, Hoffman stepped slightly from behind the bus, and fired several rounds at the wall, the bullets chipping away at the brick. Clark zigzagged his way back to the car and tried to get the Sheriff's Department on the radio ... He looked down and saw it was destroyed. He reached for the cell phone on the seat and tried to make a call. No signal..."