Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 3/17/2024 + 1223 more book reviews

This is the fourth book in McGarrity's excellent Kevin Kerney series. Kerney is the ex-Santa Fe chief of detectives who was forced to retire after sustaining some gunshot wounds. But in this one he is now Chief of the New Mexico State Police. The novel starts out with Kerney inheriting a large piece of land outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. While visiting the property, a stray dog leads him to some bones of a murder victim near the mesa of Hermit's Peak. The skeleton is incomplete but forensics determine that the victim was a young woman, probably Hispanic, who was probably raped and murdered. Meanwhile, Sara Brannon, the army major who worked with Kerney in the first book, TULAROSA, returns from her assignment in Korea with a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. While Kerney works on his relationship with Sara, another murder takes place in a remote cabin near the site of some illegal clear cutting of timber. The victim also is near a greenhouse filled with a large crop of marijuana. So why was he killed?

This was really another compelling page-turner from McGarrity. The story took some interesting twists as Kerney and his deputies try to identify the young woman found on the mesa and the reasons behind the killing of the marijuana grower. This one really kept me reading and concluded with a very tragic turn of events for one of Kerney's deputies. I have one more book on my shelves from this series that I will be reading very soon.

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