Fracking ruptures more than the earth.

The spark for Buried by the Roan is a dead hunter on the shore of Oyster Lake, deep in the Flat Tops Wilderness. Josh Keating’s demise could be a case of a hunter drinking too much and stumbling late at night. Or it could be something much worse. Plenty of other strange things are going on to make hunting guide Allison Coil think the death is no accident. Someone is lurking around, leaving odd notes and maps. Hunters and guides are turning up violently ill from drinking the Flat Tops water. Four of the buffalo on Keating’s ranch are slaughtered. And there’s word that Keating and his neighbor were tangled up in a property dispute triggered by a centuries-old Colorado law known as adverse possession.

The future of the way of life in the rugged Colorado mountains is at stake.

Allison picks up the killer’s trail but it leads to the simple, wicked device that murdered her client.

“As the story unfolds, the question arises: If it’s a crime when an individual commits an act that is clearly morally wrong, what does it mean when a corporation does the same thing on a larger scale? To its credit, Buried by the Roan refuses to avoid this uncomfortable question, even as it fulfills its promise as a page-turning summer mystery read.” – High Country News