Skeleton Picnic

By Michael Norman

Third generation Kanab residents Rolly and Abigail Rogers come from a long line of dedicated pot hunters who scour the desert southwest in search of valuable antiquities. When the Utah couple fails to return from a weekend skeleton picnic, (pot hunting trip) along the desolate Arizona Strip, local Sheriff Charley Sutter turns to BLM Law Enforcement Ranger J.D. Books for help.

When Books searches the missing couple’s home for clues about their disappearance, he discovers the house has been burglarized and a valuable collection of ancient Anasazi and Fremont Indian antiquities stolen. Soon a search and rescue operation finds the Rogers’ truck and trailer at an abandoned campsite near an ancient Anasazi ruin that has been recently excavated. Footprints and other evidence lead Books to conclude that the couple may have been overpowered by a small group of unknown assailants.

Sheriff Sutter assigns an attractive young deputy, Beth Tanner, to investigate the burglary of the Rogers’ home under the watchful eye of Books. Together they track some of the stolen property to a pawn shop in St. George, and ultimately to a young Navajo man with a criminal record. Keeping this man alive long enough to make him talk, however, proves difficult.

Books and Tanner soon learn of a shadowy group of armed Indian police who patrol vast swaths of tribal and federal lands in search of anyone desecrating ancient Native American burial sites. They also discover several recent unsolved cases in the Four Corners region where individuals disappeared into the desert wilderness under suspicious circumstances, never to be heard from again. Could the disappearance of the Rogers, and others, be the responsibility of this group?

As Books and Tanner close in on those responsible, Books’ own survival skills will be tested when he is unwittingly drawn into a remote part of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. There he is forced into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, where the hunter becomes the hunted, and only one person gets to go home alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: Mar 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781615953998

Michael Norman

Michael Norman has taught at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for more than twenty-five years. His books include Haunted America, Historic Haunted America, and Haunted Heritage.

Reviews for Skeleton Picnic

[etennyson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This review is for audiobook version of the second book in the JD Books Mystery Series. The story sets J. D. Books, law enforcement ranger with the Bureau of Land Management against the disappearance of a couple who were digging for antiquities in the Arizona desert.

This is my first foray into this series and I likeit. Author Michael Normal pens an interesting and detailed world surrounding the protagonist and creates a believable perfect storm of events that intertwines the reader into the story.

The main character is likeable and believable. Unlike many stories in the genre the various law enforcement types are not fighting in internal turf war. This is a welcomed relief and places the reader on the side of the protagonist searching for the clues and not getting distracted with smaller over-done story lines.

The audiobook is well made and the narrator Patrick Lawlor has an interesting voice that for some reason reminds me of Case Casem. I keep thinking I’m listening to American Top 40 at times. This distraction aside the story is well read and the Lawlor brings the characters to life giving them each a unique voice.

I look forward to reading more from this author and this series.