While on patrol in the central California foothills near Rocky Bluff, Officer Stacey Wilbur spots a car crashed into a giant oak tree. A woman is slumped against the steering wheel.
The woman is dead, but it’s soon apparent the crash had little to do with her death. There is a bullet hole behind her ear.
The car belongs to the minister of a local church, and it’s his wife who’s dead on the front seat. Officer Wilbur drives to the minister’s home to give him the bad news, which is met with aloofness bordering on unconcern. The typical “suspect the spouse first” theory ratchets up a few ticks in Stacey Wilbur’s analytical mind.
Before that jells, however, Wilbur learns there’s much more in the mix.
Tempe Crabtree is the resident deputy of Bear Creek, a small mountain community in the southern Sierra. Her continuing interest in the spiritual side of her heritage often causes unrest in her marriage to her minister husband.
Kindred Spirits is about a troubled marriage, a "perfect" murder, a murder victim whose spirit won't rest until the murderer's identity is revealed, the genocide of the Tolowa nation, and two dangerous trips for Deputy Tempe Crabtree as she searches for answers.
Tempe Crabtree is the resident deputy of Bear Creek, a small mountain community in the southern Sierra. Her continuing interest in the spiritual side of her heritage often causes unrest in her marriage to her minister husband.
Judgment Fire (978-1-59426-484-9)
A battered wife is murdered and Tempe is given a warning by a shaman. She participates in a starlight ceremony, and repressed memories of her own painful high school days help her find the killer.
Tempe Crabtree is the resident deputy of Bear Creek, a small mountain community in the southern Sierra. Her continuing interest in the spiritual side of her heritage often causes unrest in her marriage to her minister husband.
Calling the Dead (978-1-59426-352-1)
Deputy Tempe Crabtree investigates a murder that looks like death from natural causes, and a suicide that looks like murder.
