Sometimes The Dragon Wins

About the Book

With the discovery of the homicide of Dr. Joel Flowers, Principal of Laurel Hill High School, Detective Florence Holmes, a divorced woman in her thirties, who lives alone with her cat Missy, teams up with Detective Jonathan Smith to solve the gruesome murder in the once peaceful Massachusetts town, minutes from Salem. The body of Dr. Flowers was brutally mutilated, and his tongue and testicles were removed and taken as trophies. He was humiliated further by being ejaculated upon, and left to bleed to death on top of his office desk. The wall above his desk had the message RETIRED TO GREENER PASTURES written in blood scripture. Within days body parts of the victim are dropped off to Father Michael Antonini, a young priest who is torn between his vocation and the lure of the outside world. He discovers that the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been purloined from its pedestal outside the rectory. After a heart of a ten-year-old-girl is found floating in the Baptismal Font, he decided to offer his services to both detectives.

Florence, the protagonist, follows a lead received at the funeral and a clue left in Dr. Flowers' desk at the high school. She is being courted by Detective Smith, but is reluctant to marry again despite his asking and her apparent love for him. Forensic evidence leads her to Dr. Abraham Holstein, the local psychiatrist, for a profile of the killer. He becomes smitten with her, asking her for dates, and sending her flowers anonymously. Unbeknownst to her, he is conducting research on a patient Charles Bennett, a young man recently admitted to the Laurel Hill Sanitarium. Charles, who had previously been in a catatonic state, awakens revealing a prophetic message. Simultaneously, Florence begins to receive e-mail messages on her computer from an unknown source, which confuse and terrify her. Meanwhile a local Neo-nazi group of skinheads are planning something big for the millennium. Using the clue, a number left on the match book from The Shady Rest Motel, found in Dr. Flowers desk, and following the usual suspects, she is led to Dr. Mary Price, a former teacher who is not only an enemy of the victim, but also a pariah in the community. On the other hand, Mr. William Flowers, the victim's younger brother and real estate developer, commits a series of murders with the help of seven hooded accomplices. The heart of their recent kill is removed, and the body is left behind Temple Beth El to be discovered by Rabbi Holstein.

Circumstantial evidence has led Florence and her sidekick Smitty to suspect Aaron DAngelo, Dr. Mary Price's son from a former marriage, and he is forced to give himself up despite an ironclad alibi. Detective Smith breaks into the skinhead encampment at Laurel Lake to discover Nazi memorabilia, and a safe in the back room. He is followed by two white supremacists who try to kill him by driving him off the road. Feeling that the safe is important to the enigma, he wants to confiscate it, but is refused doing so by Captain Mason. Weiner Diest, a green eyed, blond, special operative of the CIA, is a mole within the Aryan Brotherhood and is working in tandem with the FBI, and Laurel Hill Police Department. Captain Mason has Weiner abscond with the safe which he opens revealing numbers and payoffs to city officials for real estate deals involving arson and harassment. Mayor DeServio, who is worried about his reelection, becomes disgusted because Florence and Smitty have not captured the murderer in a town crying out for justice. He calls in the FBI who set up a Task Force Unit in the basement of headquarters. Florence and Smitty resent their interference, and attempt to withhold important evidence from the Feds with the help of Captain Mason.

In the interim,  Naomi Flowers,  the victim's wife discovers that her brother-in-law,  William Flowers,  has been named beneficiary of  Joel's life insurance policy of  two hundred thousand dollars. During the qu

About the Author

Susan Cannarozzi, M. A., The Master Teacher, born in Jersey City, New Jersey, resides in Hoboken; has taught high school Biology and Chemistry for five years holding three writing diplomas; operates Master Teacher, Inc.; and has written twenty short stories and poems as well as a screenplay.