The Cement Duck

About the Book

When thirty-six-year-old assistant head bookkeeper Evelyn Farrell resigns from her job at the Merrill Construction Company in Philadelphia, she has no idea she has set off a one million dollar scam at a northeast Georgia bank.

Head teller Serena Sheppard is on duty at Cameron National Bank that day in 1971 when a stranger driving a shiny new Cadillac requests to see the bank president, Paul Norris. The mystery man, Jarvis Salisbury, is working on a large-scale secret project and needs a loan. He returns to the bank several times and leaves with bags full of money.

Several weeks later, when Serena arrives at the bank, the building teems with FBI agents. They’re investigating the loss of more than one million dollars from the bank’s coffers. They need to determine just who Jarvis Salisbury really is and who he’s working with.

The bank employees and the townspeople are stunned. Someone in the small community of Cameron has helped steal money from the bank. Rumors fly and suspicion falls on all of the employees including the bank president, teller Joyce Williams, loan officer Phil Anderson, and even Serena. Will FBI agent Trey Bowman discover the swindler’s true identity?

About the Author

Alma Kennedy Bowen grew up in the North Georgia mountains and spent thirty-five years in reporting, communications, and marketing. She retired as executive editor of The Times, a daily newspaper in Gainesville, Georgia. Bowen and her husband, Clyde, have three adult children.