Written by Prattsville's own, Roland Keller.
When Pardee Mountain and Pardee Hollow, protected tracts of land in the Catskill Mountains, are threatened by a multimillion dollar development plan, trouble brews. The locals are against Deyl MacGreedy’s vision of Crestline Estates and the construction site experiences some minor hassles—missing construction material, machinery diverted to another job, and money issues with labor subcontractors. After the problems escalate to several bombs detonated during a high profile public relations parade, private investigator Edward Zachary Taylor, better known as Easy, is assigned to investigate.
On the verge of losing his job with Lauder & Donovan Investigations, Inc., Easy heads to the Catskills to get to the bottom of the troubles plaguing the Crestline development. As he digs around, he discovers a young, attractive veterinarian who is doing more than treating the local animals. Dr. Henrietta Van Vonderhueeks, who goes by Doc Hank, is doing secret research in the area and despite Easy’s best efforts to find another suspect, all the evidence points to the lovely Doc Hank.
“Easy Taylor may be the most flawed detective since Sam Pulsifer in An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England, but also one of the most entertaining. In Pardee Holler we witness a collision at the intersection of crooked Albany politicians, greedy Catskills developers, backwoods Pardee Mountain folk, and idealistic tree huggers. This book is a pitch-perfect homage to the down and almost out gumshoe, complete with a private dick who can’t resist playing the horses with his last sawbuck.” ― Ray Petersen, author of The Middle of Everywhere: A Novel
Roland Keller was born in New York City and later moved to the Catskill Mountains, where he still resides with his wife, Patricia. He has been the editor of PKA’s Advocate, a literary publication, for nearly three decades. Together, he and his wife raise Paso Fino horses.