Booth City

Skin River is the story of Buddy Bayes, a man with a past trying desperately for a second chance at a peaceful life as a tavern owner in small-town Gunnar, Wisconsin. His hopes for a new start are shattered, however, when he finds the severed hand of a missing young woman and falls headlong into a harrowing situation which has Buddy convinced that his past has come back to haunt him. Things aren't what they seem, though, and jumping to conclusions proves to be a disastrous mistake as the true nature of Buddy's situation slowly comes into focus. A tense, chilling novel that introduces Steven Sidor, a fine young writer with an exacting touch, a disciplined hand, and a remarkable talent for suspense.

A collection of lonely souls look for one last shot at happiness. Instead they're trapped in the never-ending cycle of false hope and true despair-and deadly violence-that is Booth City. Homicide cops Ike Horner and Eliza Ochoa are on the scene of a body dump in a riverfront park, crouching over the freezing corpse of yet another working girl-cut up in all the most delicate places. Soon Ike and Eliza find themselves on a fatal mission as they unravel a conspiracy that stretches from the darkest holes in Booth to the fringes of its most influential families. As the murder investigation hurtles toward its startling conclusion, Ike and Eliza uncover terrifying secrets that are buried too close to home...