Description
Book SynopsisNorman "Fats" Rangle, an ex-deputy sheriff, operates a horse stabling and excursion business with his brother and sister-in-law on their family ranch in the small rural community of Blue Lake, a few hours outside of Las Vegas. But fate has other plans for him when, high on a southern Nevada mountain range, Fats discovers the wreckage of a plane that crashed two years earlier. Although he reports his find to the sheriff, he does not disclose that someone had already been to the crash site—evidence that Fats deliberately destroyed.
Soon, Fats is tracking back and forth between Las Vegas and Blue Lake in a search for a missing cousin, a briefcase full of cash, and finally, for a killer. Along the way, Fats also begins to understand that he's searching for himself and his place in a rapidly changing West.
Angry and alienated, Fats distrusts everyone he meets, from sleaze-merchants and political power brokers to two women: one he wants to believe in, a retired judge; and one, a police sergeant, he can't quite believe isn't deceiving him. After all, in this Nevada, corruption is a given. Everybody lies. Much is uncertain—motives, loyalties, affections. But in
Drowning in the Desert, one thing
is certain: water is a precious resource that can both kill and be killed for.
Trade ReviewDrowning in the Desert follows the twisted intrigues of a crime investigation while exposing both the ambiguity and darker side of human behavior. The book's central theme of corporate and political corruption to obtain water rights is reminiscent of the neo-noir film
China Town." - H. Lee Barnes, author of
The Gambler's Apprentice
