Paradise Valley

Bestseller Box’s excellent conclusion to a quartet of loosely related novels that started with 2011’s Back of Beyond finds Cassie Dewell now the chief investigator for the Bakken County (N.Dak.) Sheriff’s Department. Cassie convinces her boss, Sheriff John Kirkbride, to approve a sting operation designed to entrap serial killer Ronald Pergram, an independent trucker who preys on truck stop prostitutes. Having eluded capture in 2013’s The Highway, the cunning Pergram gets wind of the plan and booby traps his truck, which explodes and kills several local police and feds involved in the operation, including Cassie’s fiancé. In the aftermath, Cassie is suspended and obnoxious county attorney Avery Tibbs subsequently forces her to resign. Meanwhile, Pergram goes on a kidnapping spree that leads to Cassie getting back on the force and the case. The intrepid, appealing Cassie relies on her keen investigative instincts to hone in on Pergram in this top-notch thriller, which makes vivid use of the American West. 250,000-copy announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. (July)