When farrier Jenna Walsh arrives at a spring branding celebration to fix a mare's loose shoe, she expects the usual Montana ranching tradition of neighbors helping neighbors. What she doesn't expect is to witness local feed mill owner Lawrence Donovan die from a violent horse kick that everyone immediately writes off as a tragic accident. But Jenna has spent fifteen years shoeing horses across ranch country, and something about the scene doesn't sit right. Horses don't kick like that unless provoked, and her Blue Heeler Bandit won't stop alerting to the corral fence where the incident occurred. When Jenna discovers wire fragments and chemical residue that suggest someone engineered the perfect murder, she realizes the tight-knit community of Sage Hollow is hiding a killer.
As Jenna digs deeper with Bandit's keen nose guiding her investigation, she uncovers a web of desperation that connects multiple ranching families. Donovan had been systematically buying up property debts and tax liens, positioning himself to foreclose on struggling operations and flip the land for profit. Three families were weeks from losing ranches that had been in their blood for generations, and any one of them could have been desperate enough to stop him permanently. When Jenna's truck brakes are sabotaged and threatening messages start appearing in her appointment book, she realizes the killer has been tracking her movements and won't hesitate to arrange another deadly "accident."
Racing against time with her best friend Carla providing moral support and coffee, and Bandit finding evidence human investigators would miss, Jenna must figure out which neighbor committed murder before she becomes the next victim. But in a community where family land means everything and ranchers protect their own at any cost, exposing the truth might cost Jenna every client and friendship she's built in fifteen years. Some secrets are buried deep in Montana soil, and some folks believe they should stay that way—but Jenna Walsh has never been afraid of hard truths, even when they kick back.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
As Jenna digs deeper with Bandit's keen nose guiding her investigation, she uncovers a web of desperation that connects multiple ranching families. Donovan had been systematically buying up property debts and tax liens, positioning himself to foreclose on struggling operations and flip the land for profit. Three families were weeks from losing ranches that had been in their blood for generations, and any one of them could have been desperate enough to stop him permanently. When Jenna's truck brakes are sabotaged and threatening messages start appearing in her appointment book, she realizes the killer has been tracking her movements and won't hesitate to arrange another deadly "accident."
Racing against time with her best friend Carla providing moral support and coffee, and Bandit finding evidence human investigators would miss, Jenna must figure out which neighbor committed murder before she becomes the next victim. But in a community where family land means everything and ranchers protect their own at any cost, exposing the truth might cost Jenna every client and friendship she's built in fifteen years. Some secrets are buried deep in Montana soil, and some folks believe they should stay that way—but Jenna Walsh has never been afraid of hard truths, even when they kick back.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Hailey Hartley's Hoofbeats and Lies