When a Colorado cannabis billionaire is assassinated, retired Denver homicide cop Woodrow "Mountain" Bell is pulled back into the inferno-one that sparked half a century earlier at a vanished hippie commune called Jericho. As Bell digs into the ashes, he uncovers links between the mogul and a charismatic killer who once fled those same mountains. Now, with the old codgers of "Deaf Row" at his side, Bell must face ghosts, secrets, and the unholy marriage of idealism and greed before the past burns the living one last time.
He's got help, whether he wants it or not. His aging morning coffee cronies at Midnight's Tommyknockers Diner-they call themselves "Deaf Row"-a raucous klatsch comprising the retired newspaper editor, an old priest, town doctor, fire chief, and assorted other local codgers who disguise affection for and loyalty to each other as insult and banter. These old men are wrestling with the creeping sense they're growing invisible. But they're not only Bell's Greek chorus and conscience, they're his motley crew of "forensic" experts who help him solve-sometimes unwittingly-the riddles in which he's tangled.
As the investigation deepens, Bell uncovers a haunting link between Toohey's death and a 1970 double murder at the hippie commune of Jericho, a case once dismissed as a relic of the counterculture. Bell begins to pull loose threads that lead him far from Denver's glass towers and back into the past. His peculiar trail winds through Deep End, a dying mining village now inhabited by aging hippies, grifters, and holy fools-including Sky Colfax, an eighty-something tavern owner whose past doesn't fit the stories he tells. What he finds instead is a fugitive identity that has been hiding in plain sight for half a century-and a reckoning that erupts in fire when Bell confronts a man who has lived under stolen names and polished grudges for too long.
Bell's allies are as unlikely and colorful as the case itself. Fancy O'Neil, the sharp-tongued waitress at the coffee shop where Bell and his cronies gather, is a former hippie chick herself and sheds new light on the distant past. SAC Dani Silva of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and Bell's old partner, Det. Jazz Jackson of Denver Homicide, lend procedural power. And there's Charlie Maloney, Bell's independent girlfriend recovering from cancer surgery, who lends him her sharp pragmatism and quiet emotional strength.
Part mystery, part elegy, Deep End explores the stubborn endurance of decency and friendship in a world that forgets its elders and its dead. It's about love that outlasts youth, courage that survives retirement, and justice that often comes-if it comes at all-through fire.
Lyrical, witty, and deeply human, Deep End stands alone yet expands the world introduced in Deaf Row-an addictive crime story (informed by the author's decades of experience covering crime and its ripple) as well as a moving meditation on age, memory, and the unfinished business that follows us into the twilight.
"Deep End is rural noir at its finest-lean, atmospheric, and relentless. Franscell captures the stark beauty and buried tensions of the Western landscape with a storyteller's precision, delivering a mystery that feels both intimate and expansive. Fans of Craig Johnson and C.J. Box will recognize the grit and authenticity, but Deep End stands on its own with a voice that is unmistakably sharp, assured, and haunting."
