This collection of mysteries from a fresh voice in Southwestern fiction stakes out the common ground between Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy.
Nail's Crossing
In a remote corner of the Chickasaw Nation, tribal Lighthorse policeman Bill Maytubby and county deputy Hannah Bond discover the buzzard-ravaged body of a young drifter. Their investigation propels them deep into Louisiana bayou country on the scent of a bizarre conspiracy.
Greasy Bend
After a farmer discovers a body snagged on cottonwood roots in the Washita River, Johnston County deputy Hannah Bond realizes it's her elderly friend, Alice. Meanwhile, at the Golden Play Casino, robbers kill a local stickball hero and friend of Chickasaw Lighthorse Police detective Bill Maytubby. The trail leads through the quarry-scarred Oklahoma badlands to a remote airstrip.
Butcher Pen Road
On Oklahoma's Big Rock Prairie, a deaf boy finds a body in the creek. Deputy Hannah Bond and Police Sergeant Bill Maytubby investigate but find a crime scene where nothing seems to fit. Meanwhile, an interstate crime ring wants the boy to disappear. As Maytubby and Bond try to protect the boy and his mother from the criminals, an improbable ally emerges from the prairie.
Ten-Acre Rock
A squirrel hunter discovers a charred skeleton in a homemade charcoal kiln out on Big Rock Prairie. Deputy Hannah Bond and Sergeant Bill Maytubby soon identify the victim as a young Chickasaw man from a nearby town. What begins as the search for a killer soon throws them into the deep end of a conspiracy that puts everyone at risk.