Murder at Wayside Antiques

by Anna Flowers

A true story of double murder in a world class antique shop. For more details - please check our listing on amazon.com. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966636201
• ISBN13: 9780966636208
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Raven Press (ID)
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Antiques recovery in Las Vegas solves Florida double murder

"I thought MURDER AT WAYSIDE ANTIQUES was a fine read, and a damned good detective story peopled with characters we'd all like to know (the good guys, that is!)." David Hagberg, author

An intriguing mystery with a double message.

In this absorbing tale of a remarkable mystery, Flowers has produced a first in what I hope will be a series. It is lively, insightful and filled with the actual details that led to the murders and the conviction, the sentencing, the escape, and ... well you read it! Flowers does an adroit job of showing what can be done by law enforcement agencies and their personnel to further their own case or follow their own instincts.

An intriguing true crime written in mystery style.

They were not from around these parts. A young man with dark blond hair and a deceptively easy manner plus a Mexican with hard eyes drove from Texas to Florida as drug mules, to pick up a shipment in Miami. Along the way, they became thieves and murderers. Driving Interstate 75 meant going past a sign for Wayside Inn Antiques. What happened next, a double murder of a husband and wife, David and Betty Branum, managers of Wayside, is forever etched in Marion County history. Some people close to the victims still refuse to speak of it l5 years later. Others see the lengthy manhunt for the killers, who also stole antiques, as a textbook case or the stuff of mysteries. If there's a mystery, a mystery writer can't be far behind. Anna Flowers, author of two books on serial killers, is a Director of Mystery Writers of America, Florida Chapter, and a member of Sisters In Crime. "Anna came to talk to me about another caaxse I'd worked on, and I said, you know you really should be looking at this one, the Wayside murders," said Frank Alioto, who retired from the Marion County Sheriff's Office in l994. Alioto led the Task Force. Flowers did look. She knocked on doors and read transcripts. "It was fascinating, the case itself, the Task Force diligence in tracking these men for three years, certainly different than my other two books. I was sad for David, Jr. and the family but when I started thinking about the characters involved, it took on a whole different aspect. It read like a mysterty," Flowers said. Flowers thinks luck - when opportunity meets preparedness - applies to writing this book...Solving the crimes started finding the antiques. Pictures sent to antique dealers worked. Detectives flew to Las Vegas in l987 and recovered the goods. Back in Ocala, Ken Ergle, then the Sheriff's public relations man, was informing the media. The books does read like a mystery, only it is real life. In an ironic twist, Flowers has been asked to speak about her book at the National Antiques & Collectibles Dealer Association Conference in March. The locaation Las Vegas, where the missing Wayside antiques were found.