In the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, some discoveries are worth killing for.
When a university paleontology team descends from their remote dig site to celebrate the end of field season in the small town of Darkness, they're riding high on what could be a career-making discovery. But their excitement turns to concern when their professor vanishes overnight, taking the university vehicle and leaving no word behind.
Sheriff Izar Llewellyn expects a simple search and rescue—until Forest Ranger Mal Garth finds the missing truck at a high-country trailhead. Following the trail back to the abandoned excavation site, Izzy discovers the professor's body and evidence that suggests he returned alone to verify something about the team's prized fossil specimen.
As Izzy keeps the research team in Darkness during her investigation, their celebration curdles into suspicion. Someone among them had reason to follow their colleague into the mountains. Someone needed him dead before he could expose the truth. And as Izzy digs deeper into academic rivalries, inappropriate relationships, and the cutthroat world of paleontological research, she realizes the team's greatest discovery might not be what they found in the rocks—but what they're hiding from each other.
With winter closing in and pressure mounting from the university, Izzy must unearth a killer before they can bury the evidence forever.
Genre: Mystery
When a university paleontology team descends from their remote dig site to celebrate the end of field season in the small town of Darkness, they're riding high on what could be a career-making discovery. But their excitement turns to concern when their professor vanishes overnight, taking the university vehicle and leaving no word behind.
Sheriff Izar Llewellyn expects a simple search and rescue—until Forest Ranger Mal Garth finds the missing truck at a high-country trailhead. Following the trail back to the abandoned excavation site, Izzy discovers the professor's body and evidence that suggests he returned alone to verify something about the team's prized fossil specimen.
As Izzy keeps the research team in Darkness during her investigation, their celebration curdles into suspicion. Someone among them had reason to follow their colleague into the mountains. Someone needed him dead before he could expose the truth. And as Izzy digs deeper into academic rivalries, inappropriate relationships, and the cutthroat world of paleontological research, she realizes the team's greatest discovery might not be what they found in the rocks—but what they're hiding from each other.
With winter closing in and pressure mounting from the university, Izzy must unearth a killer before they can bury the evidence forever.
Genre: Mystery