that night at the palace
On a Saturday night in 1941 in the tiny town of Elza, Texas an old man casually walks in through the back door of a crowded movie theater with a shotgun in hand. He strolls unnoticed up the aisle and stops in front of a seventeen-year-old boy and points the gun in the boy’s face. Fortunately, another teenager sees the man and leaps at him as the gun fires, causing him to miss the intended victim. The following morning, while the old man is locked in jail, the boy he tried to kill is found brutally murdered and the only
suspect is Jesse Rose, the teenager who saved him the night before.
Five years earlier Jesse sat beside Gemma Crawford atop a Ferris wheel, gazing down at the town carnival. Though young, it was that moment the two fell in love. But while they spun above the midway, a series of deadly incidents were unfolding below. One of which would force Jesse to hide both a body and a terrible secret that would shape the rest of their lives and eventually land Jesse in jail for
a murder he didn’t commit.
To uncover the truth, legendary Texas Ranger Brewster McKinney, local police chief Jefferson Hightower, and a battle-worn former buffalo soldier known as Cherokee-One-Leg must unravel a mystery spanning almost thirty years. Their investigation leads through a tangled web of clues involving corrupt businessmen, Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, small-town gangsters, and a notorious backwoods bordello. But what is hidden in Jesse’s heart is one secret that could exonerate him, it is what really happened during the summer of ’36. It is a secret that would break Gemma’s heart.
