Bitter recoil

the long version

Aging Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner has weathered his quadruple bypass and is taking a rare vacation up in the state's northern mountains. He's escaping meddlesome medical providers who wish he'd reform, but his heart is in staging a reunion with his former detective Estell Reyes who is working in San Estevan County. Arriving a day early at the the Steamboart Rock Campground, his camping plans are interrupted by sirens. Suddenly, Gastner, Reyes, and her new husband, a doctor, reunite, not over dinner, but over the body of a pregnant young woman . At first the detectives assume she was a hit-and-run victim. Then the medical exam reveals she was instead thrown from a moving vehicle after a rape attempt. Gastner's curiosity is piqued--but he's on vacation. Then four more deaths follow and the still-to-reckoned-with lawman steps in to stop the rash of murders.