ThuSense

After eight years in the United States Army, Johnny Quentin, who joined in 1961 on the buddy system with his friend Charlie Merriman, has returned to Smoke Tree without Charlie. Johnny intends to stop only long enough to pay his respects to Charlie's widow and his mother, but Webster Charles, the oldest man in the Mojave Village and the strongest link to the tribe's cultural heritage, has other plans for Johnny. Once those plans are revealed, Johnny stays to honor Charlie Merriman's last request: that Johnny be more than a godfather to the slain soldier's twin sons. Nothing is easy for ...

Two arsonists are at work in Smoke Tree. One is a slick professional; the other is an evil pyromaniac using fire to settle old scores. One would be bad enough, but two? Captain Carlos Caballo, commander of the Smoke Tree substation of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, is fighting to save the town he loves. If that weren't enough for Captain Caballo and his deputies to contend with, illegal drugs are arriving in Smoke Tree. The source seems to a motorcycle gang operating from the river bottom on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

In the middle of an important investigation,Smoke Tree Substation Commander Carlos Caballo, known up and down the Colorado River Valley as "Horse," is suddenly called away to find a man who has shot an inspector at the California Agricultural Inspection station in the tiny desert community of Vidal, California. A California Highway patrolman has found the car abandoned alongside Highway95. When Horse and and the patrolman force open the trunk, they discover a body: the man's wife. Horse realizes he and his deputies must find a killer who is on foot in the vast, unpopulated area where the ...