Hang fire

Henry Kisor

"Why kill a human being with an antique muzzle-loader? Each year in the entire country, only a handful of people die that way, and half the deaths are self-inflicted. In either case, loading and firing a flintlock or cap-and-ball weapon takes way too much time, fuss, and expertise. A pretty young teacher is killed by a ball from a Revolutionary War-era musket during an encampment of historical reenactors on a river in Porcupine County. Sheriff Steve Martinez-- Lakota by birth, white by upbringing-- is troubled by the victim's role-playing 'persona' as a camp-following frontier prostitute. Several other reenactors had been her customers, and sex often is a motive for murder. All the same, there is no evidence of foul play, forensic or otherwise, and the death is ruled an accident. The next few months, however, bring a surprising number of seemingly unrelated muzzle-loading deaths in the Upper Midwest. A statistical anomaly-- or something worse? Steve is suspicious. To find the answer and to keep the peace in Porcupine County, the sheriff must battle skeptics, a lack of forensic evidence, an ever-shrinking departmental budget, and a suddenly rocky romance with his longtime love, a beautiful redhead named Ginny Fitzgerald. Hot on the trail in the deep woods, Steve suddenly discovers that he is his quarry's newest target"--Author's web page.