Detective Barrett Raines, the sole Black officer on a small northwest-Florida police force, investigates the murder of popular bar owner Ramona, his beloved mentor, and must face the possibility that his ne'er-do-well brother may be involved

A Rock and a Hard Place

Literature & Fiction

Wimberley, Darryl

United States

St Martins Pr

The first appearance of Barrett Raines in A Rock and a Hard Place added an intelligent and extraordinarily engaging black policeman to the short roster of leading Afro-American fictional detectives. At the end of A Rock and a Hard Place, Raines is so torn by the conflicts he faced that he's gone into an emotional tailspin. While trying to save himself from depression Raines gets a new case. It involves the discovery of a mysterious stranger's body that strongly speaks of illicit dealings and Raines is pressed to follow a trail that takes him to an island so remote he can hardly find the way to it. There he encounters a situation that forces him to call upon his courage and his intelligence not only to solve the crime but to save his life.

Dead Man's Bay

Minotaur Books

On a chilly October morning, Barrett "Bear" Raines finds himself on the campground of Linton Loyd, one of the richest men in Florida, watching Linton clean his latest catch. Barrett does not understand why he, an African-American detective for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, has been invited to the rich man's playground, but soon discovers that Linton wants something from him: Linton wants Barrett to run for county sheriff and Linton will help sponsor the campaign. Barrett doesn't know what to make of the appealing offer and decides to think about it. The following week at work, Barrett learns of a case in which illegal immigrants are being forced to bale straw under rigged contracts and the department wants to find out just how wide spread the problem is. Barrett agrees to accompany Jarold Pearson, an old acquaintance and game warden, to the woods of Linton Loyd's straw baling company. However, the men find more than a group of scared migrant workers: in a secluded tin shack, they discover the body of a young woman pinned to the wall, almost as if she had been crucified. Based on evidence at the scene, Linton's only son becomes the prime suspect, but what does that do for Barrett's chance at sheriff? In a setting mysterious in itself, where an ancient woman could really be the witch people call her, Barrett faces horrible crime and a solution that continually changes shape, as elusive as the strange lights that flicker in his native swamps.

Strawman's Hammock

There is a Florida that has nothing to do with Disney World. Nothing to do with palm trees or Holiday Inns. Tourists are neither courted nor coddled in this Florida, and you can go a hundred miles and never find a golden arch. So says author Darryl Wimberley, and it's a Florida he knows. He knows, too, that in towns like Pepperfish Keys, there are those who still can't believe that a black man could rise to a high position in the state police. But Barrett Raines has done it; his father may have been a moneyless fisherman enriching his white employer, but things have changed---a bit. Sharon Fowler, a local television reporter, isn't concerned with Barrett's race---she wouldn't have cared if he were pink and green. She just wants to use him to get him (and, she hopes, the state's senator as well) into some kind of blazing trouble that will let her write a prize-wining story. Senator Baxter Stanton, of course, knows how important it is that the town's voters consider him "their man" in the upcoming election. There are activities he would like to stay hidden, and his young daughter, whom he can't harness, is having a fling with a man whom Barrett suspects is dealing with the senator in some kind of illegal business. But things happen that neither Barrett nor Sharon expected, throwing them into an unlikely alliance. The dead body of the senator's daughter is discovered behind a water heater in the senator's mansion. Can Raines pull the threads together---and find out what they mean? Set along the northwestern coast of Florida's Big Bend, Pepperfish Keys is an amazing addition to this riveting Florida Gulf noir series.

Pepperfish Keys: A Barrett Raines Mystery

Special Agent Barrett “Bear” Raines of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has his Little League game interrupted when a returning GI uses Bear and the local sheriff to commit suicide-by-cop. Barrett agonizes over the young man’s death. 
He knows that the young marine came home with a squad of other veterans who live outside the law near a place called Devil’s Slew. Those GIs come under suspicion when federal authorities trace counterfeited currency to Bear’s backyard. The feds believe that the counterfeiters are responsible for the kidnapping of a female agent off the streets of New Orleans. The threads connecting these local crimes stretch from northern Florida to Afghanistan and Mexico, and so, once again, Barrett Raines and the FDLE are called in to dodge the bullets and connect the dots.
A superb storyteller, Darryl Wimberley writes about a Florida not many people know about, bringing to life its rich characters---and its lurking dangers.

Devil's Slew: A Barrett Raines Mystery

Writing for Interactive Media is a comprehensive how-to guide that demystifies the complex process of interactive writing. Authors Samsel and Wimberley examine the constantly-evolving arena of interactive storytelling, exploring the entire gamut of multimedia activity from Internet soap operas to educational kiosks to ongoing experiments which take gaming narratives from the living room to players across the globe. 
The book teaches everything writers need to know about the emerging craft of interactive writing from character and story issues to compensation. The authors reveal how to create design proposals, interactive screenplays, and flow modules that will meet the rigid standards of industry professionals. Full of innovative techniques tailored for the interactive environment, this is an indispensable tool for writers seeking to expand their markets and venture into the realm of interactive media.

Writing for Interactive Media: The Complete Guide

Samsel, Jon

Allworth Pr

The King of Colored Town

There are good people and bad on both sides of the tracks that divide Laureate from 'Colored Town'. Our instruction in that hard truth comes as we follow two African-American teens, Cilla Handsom and Joe Billy King, as they endure the backlash resulting from the integration of their segregated school with the all-white school run by Lafayette County's all-white school board. The issue of the education of Laureate's children will expose hatreds on both sides of the color divide. Cilla will emerge from her ordeal carrying scars and grace to become a widely traveled classical musician. Joe Billy will be found hanging from the bars of his cell in a Florida penitentiary. Their moving, intertwined dramas put courage, cowardice, loyalty and betrayal side by side in an eloquent, evocative narrative where the demons and angels of a time and place are portrayed in black and white.

Toby Pr

In this powerfully affecting novel, Darryl Wimberley explores the relationship between Tink and Carter Buchanan, a father and son whose differences have always been outweighed by a grudging mutual respect and fragile loyalty. 
 But when a brutal murder and a generations-old feud threaten the tenuous balance of their relationship, Carter must soon decide for himself where--and with whom--he belongs. His is a violent world, mired in corruption and racism, a place more inclined to take an eye for an eye than to turn the other cheek, a place where betrayal can seem a lesser evil. 
 Until one betrays oneself. 
 Set in the swamplands and tobacco fields of 1940s Florida, rich in imagery and character, A Tinker's Damn is a forcefully moving novel of revenge, redemption, and the blurred distinction between the two.

A Tinker's Damn

When Ramona Walker is raped and murdered, detective Barrett Raines' brother, Delton, is chief suspect for the crime. If Barrett can't catch the killer, locals will say he's shielding his brother. If he nails Delton, they'll say he's used his badge to hang a brother he hates. The only to calm the ugly waters is to catch the killer.

A Rock and a Hard Place (Barrett Raines Mystery)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

When Barrett and his partner Cricket are assigned to a new case involving a brutally murdered man, they accept it even though it looks like it will be a dead end. The case leads Barrett to Dead Man's Bay, a village of fishermen so out of the way that he almost doesn't find it.

Dead Man's Bay (Barrett Raines Mystery)

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