Bøger af Rich Curtin

A skeleton buried in a makeshift stone grave is discovered near a remote bluff overlooking Labyrinth Canyon in southeast Utah. Cause of death: a bullet to the back of the head. The victim turns out to be a controversial investigative journalist from New York City who moved to Moab for some peace and quiet. That's what he found, but only for a little while. He couldn't shut off his investigative instincts and that eventually cost him his life. Even small towns have secrets worth killing for. The discovery of the corpse triggers a series of bizarre murders, shattering the tranquility of Moab, the epicenter of the surrounding red rock canyon country. Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera picks up the investigation where the journalist left off, leading the deputy from a dead man's secret to a dark conspiracy that's been thriving in Moab for years.

A member of "The Keepers of Order," an armed militia determined to hunt down the culprits who have been poaching bighorn sheep, is shot while patrolling one of the remotest parts of Utah's rugged backcountry. In pursuit of the shooter, Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera stumbles upon another crime linked to the activities of a Ute medicine man who roamed those same lands in the early 1700s. With the help of a smart, young anthropologist, Rivera plunges into the past to unravel a sequence of bizarre events underlying a shocking murder. In the end, he's once again forced to choose between enforcing the letter of the law and serving the cause of justice.

New clues in an old, unsolved murder case lead Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera from Moab, Utah, to a small, remote village in the mountains of northern New Mexico. With reluctant and sometimes non-existent assistance from the local sheriff, he enters a community of people unwilling to open up with him because of a centuries-old distrust of outsiders-outsiders were the ones who stole their land grant. He slowly penetrates their hardened attitude toward strangers and learns about a series of bizarre events which took place there fifteen years ago. As layers of the case are peeled away, he begins to understand the complexities behind a number of mysterious deaths. Local cultural beliefs-superstitions, witches, evil spells, owl power, a secret religious organization, and a strange saint-stymie his progress, complicate his investigation, and threaten his life.

MATTHEW AND WILMA Mason, a married couple from San Francisco on a driving tour of southwest national parks, are found shot to death in the remote and rugged backcountry of southeast Utah. A revolver clutched in Matthew's hand suggests a murder-suicide, but Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera thinks otherwise. In his mind, there are too many unanswered questions. Why had the Masons, at age 68, detoured from the planned vacation route shown on their map? Why had they left the comfort of paved roads for rough, gravel back roads that led to nowhere in particular? Why had they driven to the place where they were found, next to an abandoned grass airstrip? And most peculiar of all, why were they dressed like hippies from the 1960s?

A backcountry commune, consisting of cave-like dwellings hollowed out of an immense sandstone formation in the remote high-desert landscape west of Moab, becomes the focal point of a murder case. A nineteen year old girl named Sunshine, a member of the small community, mysteriously disappears one evening. She was last seen hiking from her residence into an oncoming September thunderstorm. Orin, the leader of the commune, organizes a small search party the next morning to look for her. They discover Sunshine about a mile from the commune, dead by strangulation. Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera arrives at the crime scene and begins his investigation. He looks around at the vast empty terrain, wondering why anyone would kill a seemingly innocent young lady out in the middle of nowhere. The other residents of the commune, an unusual collection of drop-outs from society, are all potential suspects. Rivera's pursuit of the killer introduces the reader to the commune and its bizarre history, a strange backcountry hermit who lives in a camper-top pickup truck, and a picturesque ranch overlooking Labyrinth Canyon owned by a wealthy well-connected third-generation rancher. Rivera receives assistance in his investigation from Amy Rousseau, PhD, an attractive botanist who is quickly becoming his love interest. Rivera conducts his investigation while dealing with problems caused by his inexperienced new boss, Sheriff Denny Campbell. In the end, the deputy's own life is endangered as he gets closer to understanding the motive for Sunshine's murder.

Protesters in downtown Moab are demonstrating against pothunters who defile ancient-Indian graves in search of valuable artifacts. A manifesto threatening stronger action in retaliation for the pothunting is received by the local newspaper. Soon thereafter, a San Francisco artifact collector is found murdered in a remote part of the LaSal Mountains. In his backpack is a freshly-dug ancient-Indian pot. Subsequent acts of lawless defiance emphasize the serious nature of the protest. As the violence escalates, Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera risks his life to unravel a complex weave of greed and death that threatens to plunge tranquil Grand County into a war zone. Clues are scarce, and Rivera's well-honed sense of logic is severely tested.

Iggy Webb, a Moab rockhound who makes his living finding beautiful rocks in the Utah backcountry and selling them to tourists, is found shot to death in the modest motorhome where he lives. Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera is assigned the case. The only immediate clue is a crumpled piece of notepaper in Iggy's wastebasket which has some figures written on it. Finding a motive for the killing at first seems impossible, but as Rivera peels back the layers of the case, he discovers a shocking conspiracy unlike anything he's encountered in his professional career. His investigation uncovers tentacles leading to the most unlikely places and motives driven by the darkest of man's imperfections.