All Fall Down — Richard Snodgrass

There's been a murder in Furnass -- or has there? The death under suspicious circumstances of prominent real estate developer Dickie Sutcliff leads the Reverend Bryce Orr to play detective. Ignoring contradictory evidence as well as prime suspects such as Dickie's wife or brother, Bryce's favorite suspect is his childhood friend, Julian Lyle. Meanwhile Lyle, a less than successful lawyer in town whose aspirations included the failed Furnass Towers project, is most concerned with stopping his new best friend Kim Leong from using his martial arts skills to kill a local drug dealer who may have something to do with the disappearance of Kim's teenage daughter. The threads of these various investigations reach a violent conclusion amid missed connections and misplaced loyalties, as well as the possibilities for forgiveness.