CJ Hand Novels

The pall of death hangs over two distinctly different valleys separated by eighteen-hundred miles. One a modest, unknown channel drained by a small cool-water stream and the other a magnificent gorge carved by a roaring river that separates two states. Unknown to a man, tormented by loss and intensifying anger, both valleys hold his fate. A bloody mist suddenly fills a truck cab. It was not the shot, but the seconds after that brings change for criminal investigator CJ Hand. Beset with his recent loss and pent-up anger he takes leave from a tangled bureaucratic mess. Trying to find self-worth he agrees to help friends by probing the accidental drowning of a friend's son. The image of an uncomplicated investigation is quickly shattered. CJ encounters a maze of deadly circles surrounding the death. He begins unwinding hidden tentacles of political power and personal greed gripping Elm Creek valley. Affecting his personal life are two intellectual and intuitive women who help him come to grips with what he has been running from, or toward, for a decade. DEADLY CIRCLES is a fast-paced novel exposing the ugly underbelly of insidious criminal activity.

The animal stench triggers Dawn's gag reflex. The constant grinding of stone on stone irritably attacks her frayed nerves. The noise abruptly stops. Odd scratching sounds echo in her half-conscious state. She pulls herself into a sitting position and stares at a cage door. She gasps at the creature peering into her eyes. Federal investigators, Tom Thies, and Dr. Trisha Baker run into problems with the odd disappearance of a professor. Tom asks for CJ Hand's help because of his native plant knowledge. As CJ digs into the former professor's files, he discovers a unique plant variant of the hoary puccoon. On finding the plant, he launches into a geocache challenge. The clues inside the geocache boxes begin a match of wits with an intellectual killer. Complicating the case is CJ's summer class he has contracted to teach. The new dean suggests he violates his by working the case with the federal officials. Time is against him and his partners working the missing person case. How does a small reptilian creature and an oddly named plant figure into the tormentor's game?