Sheriff Ray Crawford Osborn narrates the story of a time he decided to take a vacation to East Texas to escape the irritating politics in Lantz, his tiny hometown that isn't far from the state capitol, Austin. It doesn't turn out well. Osborn and his wife have barely unpacked when the sheriff is bamboozled by an old Army buddy into helping solve a fifty-year-old mystery. Big Lou, a distant relative who walked out on his family decades before, has been found dead in a derelict hotel in Texarkana, a city that straddles the Arkansas-Texas border. The police suspect homicide. To get to the bottom of what happened to Big Lou, Osborn navigates family drama, the complicated world of banking regulation, personal stories of individuals struggling with sobriety, and the inner workings of small towns in Texas. In his search for answers, the sheriff is shot and left for dead on a country road. In recovery in the hospital he's visited by a parade of individuals, each who help him sort through the complexities of the plot to ultimately answer the question of who shot him, what happened to Big Lou, and assorted other minor mysteries. GRAVEL ROADS & SHALLOW GRAVES brings to life a cast of liars, tramps, thieves, and swindlers who together hold the truth Osborn seeks. As Osborn reminds us, "no good story is about things going right."