There are killers at large on the high plains of southern Arizona, and some of them are human. When the owner of a nature preserve is murdered along with her foreman, Deputy Sheriff Cal Creede searches for a motive. Was it because both victims were helping border crossers find their way north, or was there a dark secret about the ranch both died trying to protect? Deputy Creede must root out corruption, greed, and pure evil in order to solve the case, while the largest feline predator in the New World watches it all from high in her mountain lair.
Carl and Jane Bock are retired Professors of Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Carl received his PhD in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley, while Jane holds three degrees in Botany, a B.A. from Duke, an M.A. from the University of Indiana, and a PhD from Berkeley. Carl is an ornithologist and conservation biologist. Jane is a plant ecologist and an internationally recognized expert in the use of plant evidence in criminal investigations. Now largely retired from academic life, the Bocks have turned their creative efforts toward fiction writing, and are co-authors of two ongoing series, the Arizona Borderlands Mysteries and the Florida Swamp Guide Mysteries.