August 14, 2023
Ty Dawson, sheriff of rural Oregon’s Merriweather County in the early 1970s, faces off against big-city corruption in Birtcher’s outstanding third entry in an increasingly gripping series (after 2018’s Fistful of Rain). When federal fish and wildlife agents attempt to close off a portion of his neighbor’s ranch and restrict the drinking water available to the rancher’s cattle, Dawson plays peacemaker. Then the body of a Portland police detective with a history of corruption turns up in an abandoned resort cabin nearby, and Dawson gets pressure from Portland Police Bureau higher-ups to call it a suicide. As the sheriff starts making connections between the land dispute and the suspicious death, each case becomes more complicated, first by the arrival of the rancher’s brother-in-law, an anti-government activist who turns the local land tussle into a national flash point, and then by self-styled militiamen who set up a confrontation that leaves the rancher and a deputy dead. Birtcher makes Oregon’s stark urban-rural divide palpable, and his forceful prose recalls James Lee Burke. It all culminates in a memorable showdown whose violence feels well-earned. Readers will crave more from Dawson down the road. Agent: Peter Riva, International Transactions.