Back from the brink

A second case finds the sheriff of Toole County, Montana, up to her neck in potentially crooked law enforcement colleagues. Called out from Blue Mesa, from which their little department must cover an impossibly broad area, to assist the equally short-handed Border Patrol North, Nicole Cobain and her deputy, Ty Watts, find a BPN boat afloat on Lake Maria, apparently abandoned by Kyle Monte and Melody Baker, the two agents who'd asked for help. Plus, there's the dead body they were calling about, so completely encased in ice that the aid of a chainsaw is required before it can be thawed. Monte and Baker are nowhere to be found; the closest a search of the lake comes to them is a BPN bag containing a king's ransom in fentanyl. Certain that her search for the missing agents is only part of a deadlier hunt for money and drugs on the parts of both different police departments and numerous criminals, Nicole, fresh from a near-fatal encounter with Benjamin Kris, the once-loved father of her 11-year-old son, wonders with increasing apprehension whom she can trust. Larry Green, the BPN division commander still smarting over the loss of a pile of crucial drug evidence last year? Retired attorney Lois Embry, who's given shelter to Adelai Amari, a young Syrian who's just given birth while on the run from shadowy enemies? Special agent Devon Gates, who appears from nowhere to demand a role in the investigation? The answers seem to lie with the three Franks brothers, Matthew, Luke, and James, but it's anyone's guess how trustworthy any of them are. So many bent cops the poor drug lords barely register. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.