A lean, stylish debut, with a hero who's equally at home sniffing out evidence and duking it out with the heavies. But Sammy's body is the beginning of a hot trail to a fabulous cache of antique weapons, gold coins, and rare correspondence that's attracted a lively and professional traffic across the border-a traffic that cost Sammy his life, and could be expensive for Kerney and Brannon too. A buddy of Sammy's digs up a sheaf of drawings that Sammy could have made only in the off-limits Indian Wells area Sammy's art teacher reports that some photos he recently left with her have been stolen and, inevitably, when Kerney and Brannon ride out together in search of new evidence, they find exactly what they'd most hoped to avoid. So Kerney signs on, and even in the 24 hours he's allowed on the base, he turns up some new leads. Sammy's been AWOL from the White Sands Missile Range for six weeks, and the Army investigation, headed by Captain Sara Brannon, is spinning its wheels. But he's goaded back into investigating the disappearance of his godson Sammy Yazzi by Sammy's distraught father, the former partner who ended Kerney's career with the Santa Fe Police Department when his drinking got Kerney shot into early medical retirement.

Like so many other contemporary heroes, Kevin Kerney is just looking to be left alone.

Tularosa by Michael McGarrity