Kevin Kerney is a deputy state police chief in New Mexico. During one of his investigations, he met a woman named Sara Brannon; and they began a relationship. Unfortunately, they were soon to be separated, as Sara was a major in the military and got posted to Korea where she is responsible for monitoring North Korean troop activity along and inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). As the book opens, both Sara and Kevin are on the verge of realizing some of their fondest dreams. Sara bravely led a unit that thwarted a sniper attack in the DMZ which was intended for the visiting secretary of state, her post commander and the president of South Korea. Her entire unit has received promotions as a result, and she has become a light colonel. This requires that she return to the States for additional training; and one of the first things on her mind is getting back in touch with Kerney. In the meantime, Kerney has some good news of his own. His surrogate mother, Erma Ferguson, has passed away and bequeathed Kevin a huge plot of land. It has been his dream for some time to own his own ranch, and this bequest makes it possible. Unfortunately, the value of the land has escalated as the area has developed; and Kevin owes a huge inheritance tax (several million dollars). He is dejected because he may have to sell the land that he loves so much. Kerney wants to look over his several thousand acres, so he and a close friend go out and ride the property. As they do so, a bedraggled dog approaches them with a shoe in its mouth. When it appears minutes later with a second shoe, Kevin is suspicious. He finds a dismembered skeleton and that turns his new property into a crime scene. There are several other crimes as well-somebody has clear cut 40 acres of prime woodlands; a nearby neighbor is shot and over 2000 marijuana plants found on his property; a young man is killed by the cops, there's an interstate fencing scheme--this little piece of heaven has gone straight to hell. This book is the fourth in the series and differs in that the focus is more on the police investigation as conducted by the entire department rather than just concentrating on Kevin. He is shown more in a leadership role, working with the other cops and managing the professional and personal issues. The entire department goes all out in chasing down the clues to these various incidents. Several of the crimes seem to be related to a young man named Bernardo Barela whose grandfather leases some of Kerney's land. Bernardo at one time was also a close friend of the son of one of the lead investigating officers, Gabe Gonzales. He's a nasty piece of work. McGarrity did a great job on the plot which was complex and unpredictable. Things don't turn out as the reader might expect for several of the situations in the book. The one area where McGarrity is surprisingly ineffective is in the depiction of the relationship between Sara and Kevin. The interaction between them seemed unnatural, and the dialog clunky. I thought that the relationship between Kerney and the dog was better drawn. The one thing that does make all of McGarrity's books special is his knowledge and love of the land. His descriptions of the setting are almost poetic.
