Raine and her twice-married, often estranged husband Deputy Sheriff Buck Lawson are trying to work through their relationship and don’t need any distractions. Raine’s college boyfriend Andy Fontana, who was also best friends growing up with Buck, is back, but it’s not Buck who is looking for him, it is the FBI. Andy became involved with a radical environmental group during college and after a bombing at a chemical plant Andy disappeared, along with over one million dollars of the group’s treasury.

The FBI believes Andy has converted the money into diamonds and buried them in the mountains and has returned to retrieve them. Raine can’t believe Andy is violent and still believes in his innocence. Raine loses some of her innocence when Buck reveals some teenage secrets he kept hidden from her. A dead immigrant worker near a construction site may or may not be connected to the environmental group, but someone doesn’t want all the construction continuing and it may or may not be connected to Andy’s return.

There are a lot of good things crammed into this tight story. Raine is completely devoted to her dogs and their care. She and her business partner Maude and lawyer and dog owner Sonny share a lot about the business of dogs and their different personalities. Raine’s other love is the mountains she grew up in; she has a deep respect for the woods and the creatures that live there. She tries to convince the people who spotted the bear that they are the one’s encroaching on the bear’s home, not the other way around. Raine met the young immigrant the afternoon before he was killed and feels compelled to track down his murderer, no matter where it leads.

Dog lovers and environmentalists will cheer for this latest addition to amateur sleuths; readers will find themselves rooting for Buck and Raine as they try and find their way back to each other, and they will even roote for the bear once Raine makes her case for the woods being his home.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry