Stalking Ground

Deputy Ken Brody's girlfriend disappears in the high country above Timber Creek. Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner, Robo, are summoned to look for her. It is mid-October, and a heavy storm is building over the peaks.

The search ends badly. By the time Mattie and Robo locate the woman's body, the storm has broken and snow is falling hard. Brody hikes down the mountain to bring back the forensics team, and veterinarian Cole Walker goes to gather supplies against the weather.

That leaves Mattie and Robo alone at the gravesite, guarding it through the first night of early winter. The cold and the dark are part of the case from the start, and the book keeps its action in that setting.

The investigation that follows draws in Mattie, Robo, Brody and Cole, and it stretches across more nights like the first. The ground they are working belongs to the killer, and the book turns on one question: how long the people tracking him can stay the ones doing the hunting.