In this third book in the 'Porter Beck' series, the Nevada sheriff investigates three murders. The book works as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.

On that note:
Sheriff Porter Beck and his small cadre of officers uphold the law in Lincoln County, Nevada, a vast sparsely populated region that contains Area 51: a U.S. military base synonymous with stories of UFOs and government cover-ups. Previously, Beck was an army intelligence officer and is familiar with many languages, including Russian and French.


Beck has a degenerative eye disease that affects his vision. Beck can see in daylight, but is blind at night, and will eventually be completely sightless.

To prepare for his ultimate loss of vision, Beck has a canine named Frank Columbo (Bo), who's being trained as a seeing-eye dog.

Porter's 90-year-old father, Joe Beck, had been sheriff for three decades and is beloved and respected in Lincoln County. Joe is now suffering from dementia, but still likes to mount a horse and ride with Porter on occasion.

Porter's adopted sister Brinley Cummings, who was rescued from an abusive home, is one of the foremost weapons experts in the country. Brinley consults on Hollywood movie sets and does volunteer work with troubled youth.

Porter's girlfriend, Detective Charlotte (Charlie) Blue Horse, is a Paiute woman who works for the Department of Public Safety in Reno, 400 miles from Lincoln County.

Charlie lives with her mother and 14-year-old daughter Jules. Charlie also 'fosters' a 17-year-old girl named Mercy, an extraordinary computer hacker who's in unofficial 'witness protection'.

Beck has plans to leave his job as sheriff and become chief of the Investigative Division for the Department of Public Safety, which will allow him to work with his girlfriend Charlie in Reno. When Beck departs, Chief Deputy Tuffy Scruggs - Beck's top officer who looks more like Dick Butkus than Dick Tracey - is slated to become sheriff.

*****
The story opens in September 2020, during the Covid pandemic, and in the midst of a wild horse roundup, or gather, in Lincoln County. The gather is cited as an emergency by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), due to drought. The BLM, under the direction of Jolene Manning, plans to capture and remove almost 1500 stallions, mares, and foals, all in the name of public land management.

Ranchers support the gather, since the wild horses compete with their livestock for grass and water. On the other hand, there are dozens of protestors from CANTER (Compassionate Advocates for Natural Terrain and Equine Rights), led by activist Etta Clay.

The CANTER demonstrators hold up placards and use bullhorns to hurl insults at BLM employees, cowboys, and helicopter pilots - who chase the horses into canyons, to be loaded on trailers and transported away.

Sheriff Beck and Chief Deputy Scruggs are on horseback observing the gather when a helicopter herding the horses crashes.

Porter and Tuffy hurry over and find the pilot dead, shot in the chest by an expert marksman. The cops immediately suspect CANTER, and interview the group's leader Etta Clay, who claims to know nothing about the murder.
The next day, the local BLM director Jolene Manning is killed in the most horrendous fashion imaginable. Nearby, Daniel Cooper Scruggs (Tuffy's cousin) - the driver of a horse trailer - is also dead, shot in the head.

Reporters stream in to cover the newsworthy crimes, and Sheriff Beck's team is joined by FBI investigators and Detective Charlie Blue Horse. The prime suspect is CANTER'S Etta Clay, who presumably conspired with accomplices to kill BLM employees rounding up horses.
In the meantime, more is going on in the region.
A Canadian mining company called Longbaugh Lithium has a large lithium mine in Lincoln County.....

.....and an investigative journalist nicknamed X-Files (for his investigations into Area 51) is making inquiries for an exposé of the mining operation.

This angers the mine owners, who have enough trouble with protestors at their gates.
As all this is going on, markswoman Brinley Cummings is helping chaperone a group of troubled boys from the Lincoln County Youth Center. The boys are camping and hiking in Great Basin National Park as a form of wilderness therapy. The most difficult youth in the group, Rafa Porrazzo, runs away in the middle of the night, and Brinley sets off to catch him. Rafa has a 10-hour head start, the mountainous terrain is difficult, and Brinley has her job cut out for her.

The plot threads come together, including the search for the murderers; the mining operation; and Rafa's flight. In addition, computer hacker Mercy helps out from her home in Reno. The story has infidelity, action, danger, theft, blackmail, death, and destruction.....and canine Bo turns out to be a hero!!

In the midst of all the turmoil, Porter's father Joe Beck and Chief Deputy Tuffy Scruggs are showing signs of Covid, and the virus is spreading fast because most Nevadans refuse to wear masks. (Author Bruce Borgos is getting a little political here, but I don't mind.)
Beck successfully completes the investigation amidst tragedy and sadness, and surprises emerge.

At the book's finale, Beck and Charlie Blue Horse have decisions to make, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.
I like the 'Porter Beck' books because the plots are clever; there are strong female characters; and (most of) the males aren't entitled misogynists.
I'd recommend the book to fans of westerns and thrillers.
Thanks to Netgalley, Bruce Borgos and Minotaur Books for copy of the book.