In the Pines

At the start of this winning crime novel from Thriller Award finalist Elliot (the Columbia River novels), Truman Daly, the police chief of Eagle’s Nest, Ore., has just finished his breakfast at the local diner when 13-year-old Theodore Kerr walks in and approaches him after spotting his badge. Theodore tells Truman that his mother and baby sister have been missing for two weeks, and he and his 11-year-old sister, Charlotte, have been living at home alone. Their branch of the Kerr family are “preppers”—people living secretively and self-sufficiently off the grid. FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick, Truman’s wife, gets involved in the effort to find the missing family members. Meanwhile, Truman is distracted by a flood of outsiders who have invaded Eagle’s Nest to look for the $2 million treasure supposedly hidden by an eccentric millionaire. When two treasure hunters are murdered, supposedly for their research notes, Truman worries how far greed will drive the strangers—or his neighbors. Elliot skillfully interweaves the various plot threads, and credible, mostly sympathetic characters match the lovingly described locale. Fans of contemporary regional mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Aug.)