title: Dog Star Bender
author: Epperson, S.K.
description: More than a hundred years ago a series of murders committed by a family who called themselves the Benders took place in Kansas.  The father, mother, son and daughter took in weary travelers and offered a warm bed to sleep in for the night, but usually during dinner brought more than a hot meal to the unsuspecting guests and later robbed them of their goods and hurriedly buried the bodies.  The Benders were never punished for their crimes, and in modern day Kansas when an ex-police detective turned missing persons investigator is sent to determine the identity of a certain inn keeper outside sleepy Coffeyville he finds himself wondering if history is about to repeat itself in a very personal way, more meaningful to him than he could ever have imagined.