"That's probably why I'm not seeing more here, Bud thought cynically. You die, and then the ants, spiders, flies, magpies, crows, buzzards, and coyotes move in. Like human vultures after the estate of a deceased relative." Two molars in the jawbone survived whatever catastrophe befell this person, giving Bud a glimmer of hope for an identification from dental records.

When a hunting dog unearths a human jawbone beneath Oregon's rugged Abert Rim, Sheriff Bud Blair is pulled into a decades-old mystery. What begins as a chance discovery soon reveals a broken gun, lost lives, and a homicide buried by thirty years of silence. Alongside his loyal deputies and a team of forensic experts, Bud follows the trail of long-forgotten evidence to uncover the truth. The sixth installment in Rod Collins's Sheriff Bud Blair series delivers suspenseful, character-driven storytelling set against the stark beauty of Eastern Oregon-crime fiction that is dark in mystery but clean in language, violence, and tone.