Jill and Doug Fletcher are summoned from a family Thanksgiving to investigate what appears to be the accidental fall of a Devils Tower climber. The county coroner quickly determines that the cause of death is not the fall, pulling the Fletchers into a small town mystery where it's hunting season and everyone in town owns a gun. There are many characters and suspects who are as colorful as Jill's family and neighbors.
Dean is the best-selling author of more than thirty books in three series including the award winning "Family Trees." His Pine County series are set in rural Pine County Minnesota and are hard-boiled thrillers featuring the Pine County Sheriff's Department. His Doug Fletcher series are set in National Parks and Monuments. Fletcher is a retired St. Paul police detective who's drafted by the Park Service to investigate a number of murders, suspicious deaths, toxic waste dumping and other crimes. This series is also somewhat hard-boiled, but include a touch of romance and humor as Doug sorts out his relationship with his former boss, Jill Rickowski. The Whistling Pine series are cozies set in Two Harbors Minnesota. The protagonist is the recreation director of the Whistling Pines retirement community and he deals with the day-to-day issues of his senior citizens and is reluctantly dragged into the investigations of local murders.