Murder at Hessian's Bridge - Rod Sterling - Bog

On Halloween in 1777, the night of a blue moon, a Hessian cavalryman lost his head to an American three-pound cannon ball. He is said to ride in search of his missing head 'when the moon is full and the sky is clear.' But not in Sleepy Hollow. Washington Irving heard the story while staying at an inn in New Jersey and employed literary license to relocate the story. A paratrooper hero of D-Day survives the war in one piece only to be beheaded by the evil spirits in his home town - or was he? While being initiated into a secret society, George Panabaker must spend the night on a so-called haunted bridge. The next morning his body is identified only by the Airborne tattoo on his arm because his head is missing. The locals hush it up to avoid negative publicity. As a result, George's paratrooper buddy - private detective Tony Donohoo - does not learn of the death for eight years. George's younger brother hires Tony to get to the bottom of who actually killed his brother. Tony enlists the aid of his beautiful, but sarcastic red-haired girlfriend, Mindy McCall. Together they work to unravel the secret of who actually killed George Panabaker and why. In so doing, they must combat not only the local sheriff, but also community leaders who have something to conceal. Tony and Mindy narrowly escape death by the headless rider themselves, but ultimately prevail, culminating in a wild midnight chase of the spirit on horseback.