Police Horse

Recently drummed out of a prestigious local university and its forensic research laboratory for blowing the whistle on pillars of the community, Dr. Cornell Westerly is a promising forensic scientist with a brand-new diploma and a California license plate. He's an apprentice crime scene investigator in need of a steady job to pay the rent. Westerly, an expert in DNA analysis, finds that opportunity with Detective Dash Brogan of the Los Angeles Police Department, a man steeped in the hard-boiled, old-school police procedurals of bygone times.

The Hunted begins with a little girl witnessing a horrible crime. Due to the child's testimony, the murder is convicted. Eighteen years later the killer is released on parole, and his mission is to track down the now grown woman he feels betrayed him. A deranged dance of masked identities ensues, and it is up to newly single homicide detective Frank Russo to unravel the case.

When RaeLynn Shaffer is found on the highway near the Black Horse Campground-drugged, beaten, and unconscious-the mystery behind her disappearance weeks earlier only grows deeper. Soon it's apparent that she wasn't meant to be found alive . . . and what she knows could be fatal to the people she cares about . . . especially campground owner, Corrie Black.

Just as Corrie is getting used to having former Houston, Texas, narcotics detective J. D. Wilder as a campground employee, he officially becomes a member of the Village of Bonney Police Department. Aside from a recent crime spree at the Black Horse, not much is going on in town, giving Wilder a chance to go over some cold cases. In the past fifteen years, three women have gone missing, exactly five years apart. What has amounted to nothing more than a local urban legend becomes Wilder's new obsession.

Running a campground has its ups and downs, and Corrie finds herself facing a cavernous financial hole. A severe drought has made the forest service put fire restrictions in place, meaning no campfires or grills can be enjoyed at the Black Horse. The drop in guests have Corrie worrying about the future—especially when it becomes clear that Sheriff Rick Sutton's malicious ex-wife is frothing at the mouth to buy the Black Horse.