A Tony Boudreaux Mystery

After months of stumbling through catacombs beneath a New Orleans cemetery, evading alligators at Bayou Teche, dodging a band of fanatics searching for an ancient crystal skull, and tracking down the torch man of two clubs on Austin’s Sixth Street, Tony Boudreaux wants a rest. So when a San Antonio client offers a ten thousand dollar retainer to find a priceless map hidden in his deceased father’s den, Tony takes the job.

To his dismay, the simple task of finding a hidden map explodes into a series of attempts on his life and two murders with over a half a dozen suspects, all of whom stand to gain from the map, which is rumored to have been ancient even in the time of Alexander the Great.

Kent Conwell grew up in the Texas Panhandle in the town of Wheeler, population 848. The West was an integral part of his life. The solitude of the Panhandle, which offered little more than school and work, encouraged his reading and writing as well as his exploration of the vast emptiness of the rolling prairies, themselves filled with mystery and death.

A quest for adventure was woven into his life by his grandfather, who had run away from his Tennessee home when he was 14. He bullwhacked his way to the Panhandle, where he met his future wife who had traveled from Illinois to Texas.

After moving to Fort Worth where Kent was more at home at the stockyards than school, he earned a B.S. and began teaching. Later, he moved to Port Neches where he acquired a M.Ed. and Ph.D.

A successful educator, his love for writing about the West and its enigmas, a period in history unique to America, has never waned. After twenty-two westerns, he wrote his first mystery. He has won awards for short stories, screenplays, mysteries, and westerns.

The Puzzle of Piri Reis is Kent’s eleventh mystery for AVALON.

Avalon Mysteries by Kent Conwell:
THE RIDDLE OF MYSTERY INN

The Tony Boudreaux Mystery Series
AN UNMARKED GRAVE
THE PUZZLE OF PIRI REIS
THE CRYSTAL SKULL MURDERS
DEATH IN THE FRENCH QUARTER
THE SWAMPS OF BAYOU TECHE
EXTRACURRICULAR MURDER
THE YING ON TRIAD
VICKSBURG
DEATH IN THE DISTILLERY
SKELETONS OF THE ATCHAFALAYA
GALVESTON

Avalon Westerns by Kent Conwell:
SHOOTOUT ON THE SABINE
LLANO RIVER VALLEY
GRAVE FOR A DEAD GUNFIGHTER
ATASCOCITA GOLD
JUNCTION FLATS DRIFTER
PROMISE TO A DEAD MAN
BOWIE'S SILVER
ANGELINA SHOWDOWN
GUNFIGHT AT FRIO CANYON
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
A HANGING IN HIDETOWN
THE GAMBLING MAN
RED RIVER CROSSING
A WAGON TRAIN FOR BRIDES
FRIDAY'S STATION
SIDETRIP TO SAND SPRINGS
VALLEY OF GOLD
THE ALAMO TRAIL
PAINTED COMANCHE TREE
THE GHOST OF THE BLUE BONE MESA
BUMPO, BILL, AND THE GIRLS
LAUGHING GIRL CREEK
JIM WELLS
GLITTER OF GOLD
TEXAS ORPHAN TRAIN
BLOOD BROTHERS
THE GOLD OF BLACK MOUNTAIN