Deep in the woods surrounding the Cascade mountain range, a canvas-wrapped body floats in a lake, right in Elizabeth "Bet" Rivers's jurisdiction. Bet has been sitting as interim sheriff of Collier after her father's--the previous sheriff's--death six months ago. Everyone knows everyone in a town like Collier. She has made it her duty to protect the people she's come to see as family. And she intends to hold her title in the upcoming election, but she's never worked a murder investigation on her own before and her opponent and deputy, Dale Kovac, isn't going down without a fight.
Upon unwrapping the corpse, Bet discovers the woman is from out of town. Without an identification, the case grows that much more puzzling. Determined to prove herself worthy, however, Bet must confront the warped history of Collier. The more she learns, the more she realizes she doesn't know the townspeople of Collier as well as she thought, and nothing can prepare her for what she is about to discover.
Character Guest Post
Bet Rivers: The Sheriff of Collier
My father wasn’t supposed to die.
He called me from Collier, my tiny hometown in Washington State, to tell me about his diagnosis.
Cancer, he said. I’ll be fine, he said. Just come home for a little while. You can fill in as interim sheriff while I recover.
Not a request I could say no to.
So, I packed up my little apartment in Los Angeles, took an extended leave from the police department, and arrived back in town, put on the brown hat, and ended up with a lot of unresolved issues.
Then he fell.
That’s what the report says. He fell, from a trail he’d hiked on his whole life. My father didn’t make those kinds of mistakes.
I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Drawing me back here to pick up the pieces when he broke.
Collier has a population of less than a thousand hearty souls. We live high up in the Cascade Mountain Range, with a bottomless lake where people go missing, and an old coal mine where a lot of people died.
Hard to believe anyone would consider us a tourist destination, but we are. People come from all over the world to see our historical downtown, all two streets of it. Our cemetery, full of twenty-six different ethnic groups, each outlined with fences and shrubs and wrought iron gates.
Ghost hunters and people looking for Sasquatch show up in droves, along with Seattleites wanting to get out of the city, but not have to go further than over Snoqualmie Pass into Eastern Washington. Exotic, yet only a few hours away.
When I left to go to college and then on to Los Angeles, I thought I would stand on my own two feet. Be someone other than Earle Rivers’ daughter. Now I’m back here again, still trying to fill his shoes and live up to his reputation.
Even his dog looks at me sideways. It’s bad enough the station secretary thinks I’m not up to the job, but Schweitzer, Earle’s Anatolian shepherd, still doesn’t look at me the way he looked at Dad.
But then. I’m not Dad. I know that. I never will be. But I’m all this town has got between them and anarchy.
Okay, maybe not anarchy. After all, we rarely have any serious crimes. I’m not 100% sure anyone would notice if I just faded away.
Except for my deputy, Dale Kovac. He would certainly notice. He’s gunning for my job after all. If I turned tail and ran for Southern California, he wouldn’t miss me one bit. He’d plop himself down in Dad’s chair and post his photo behind the desk with his name on the plaque.
Maybe that’s part of my problem. I still think of it as Dad’s chair.
Dad will never sit there again. I might as well get used to the idea.
I always thought I would be Sheriff Rivers some day. Just not today. I pictured twenty years or so on the force in LA. Rising through the ranks. Then retiring as Sheriff of Collier. Take over for my Dad when his hair turned completely white.
He’d be there, in his old Craftsman house, waiting to give me sage advice and go on the occasional patrol with me. He’d spend his time fly fishing in our valley. Still tall and only a little stooped.
Dad wasn’t supposed to die. But he did.
Collier is my responsibility now.
And we just had our first murder in a very long time.
I guess it’s time to find out if I’m Rivers enough to sit in this chair.
I am my father’s daughter. It’s time Collier knew that too.
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
April 7 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT
April 7 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 8 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 8 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
April 9 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
April 9 – Gimme The Scoop Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 10 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW
April 10 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 11 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 11 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
April 12 – TBR Book Blog – REVIEW
April 13 – Baroness’ Book Trove – REVIEW
April 13 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 14 – eBook addicts – REVIEW
April 14 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 15 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW
April 15 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
April 16 – The Book Diva’s Reads – GUEST POST
April 16 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
April 17 – Diane Reviews Books – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 18 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST
April 18 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – GUEST POST
April 19 – That’s What She’s Reading – REVIEW
April 19 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 20 – Here’s How It Happened – SPOTLIGHT
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