Fractured Families

She reaches. On a freezing night in Western Kansas, Reaching Woman—forty feet in the air, trapped in stone with her leg encircled by an octopus’s tendril—balances on a slender beam. But the ancient statue cradles a ghastly bundle placed there only yesterday. Burdened with creating a regional crime center, Undersheriff Lottie Albright reluctantly takes the time to show her husband’s visiting aunt, a best-selling mystery novelist, Kansas’ Garden of Eden, the eccentric creation of a Civil War veteran. It consists of a bizarre parade of tree-high sculptures surrounding a city block. But when Aunt Dorothy Mercer discovers a body in the mausoleum the ill-timed wintry excursion becomes a murder investigation. However, it takes the sharp eyes of Sheriff Sam Abbott to notice Reaching Woman’s deadly burden. Lottie and her twin sister, psychologist Dr. Josie Albright, are immediately challenged by a demonic killer who just might be smarter than both twins.

As far as Frank Dimon at the KBI is concerned, too many members of Lottie’s family are involved in this investigation. But his insertion of a forensic psychologist of his own choosing sets off a ferocious conflict between Josie and his appointee, Dr. Evan Ferguson, which threatens Lottie’s credibility in creating the new regional law-enforcement center and emboldens the killer. A hastily assembled crew of men from the region’s counties pits rural wisdom against the KBI’s sophisticated methods. Frustration mounts when murders accelerate and innocents are sacrificed.