Poison Spring

Mike Drake is a well-known and well-liked ranch owner in Grant County, eastern Oregon. The county is stunned when his prize bull is found mutilated on his land near Poison Spring, just outside the village of Kimberly. Police Sergeant Maggie Blackthorne and her partner Hollis Jones are called to Poison Spring Ranch to look into the slaughter. There they find something worse: Mike Drake himself, shot dead not far from the bull's carcass.

Residents want answers, but Maggie and Hollis have almost no leads and a pile of contradictions. Nearly everyone loved Mike Drake, yet he appears to have been killed by a local with a grudge. As the two officers dig, they uncover dark secrets about a man the county saw as one of its most upstanding citizens, and they have to tread carefully.

The search leads them into the rugged fossil beds around the ranch. It is dangerous ground to cover, and an ideal place for a killer to stay out of sight. Poison Spring is part of the Maggie Blackthorne mystery series.