New York: Putnam, (2016) dj. Hardcover first edition - The highly praised first novel by this author, a longtime federal agent, who knows the area well. Set in the Texas borderlands of Big Bend and in the town of Murfee, this is the story of "seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross who is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago. . . Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriffs deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfees darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect." 430 pp. ISBN: 978-0399176340.