Showing results by author "Nick Russell" in All Categories

Everybody knew there was going to be trouble when Carlos Espinoza got out of prison and returned home to the little mountain town of Big Lake. He may have done his time and be a free man now, but ghosts and memories of the past still haunted him. And that wasn't all. Adele Hudson, the matriarch of a powerful ranching family, hated Carlos, and for good reason. Not only had he stolen the heart of her daughter Fawn when they were still in high school, but Carlos had been in prison was because he had killed Adele's youngest son Chuck in a drunken barroom brawl. Adele vowed then that prison was ...

Life is already complicated enough for John Lee Quarrels, what with his estranged wife dropping in for unannounced sleepovers, her oversexed sister tempting him, his pot smoking ponytailed grandfather growing his own stash, his Elvis obsessed grandmother, and being caught smack dab in the middle of a power struggle between the Sheriff and Chief Deputy. But when a road construction crew unearths the skeletons of three murder victims, John Lee suddenly finds himself on the trail of a killer who may well have died long before the deputy was even born. 

When an armored car hijacking leaves two men dead, Arizona Sheriff Jim Weber takes the crime personally, because one of the dead men is his brother-in-law. His hunt for the killers leads him into a world of sordid sex, deceit, and violence, with a suspect list that includes jilted women, a family of anti-government survivalists, and the beautiful wife of the richest man in town. With a plot that has more twists and turns than an Arizona mountain road, a cast of characters you won't soon forget.

When the father he never knew shows up at his house in the middle of the night, beaten and his body mutilated, with only a vague explanation of what happened to him, Somerton County Deputy John Lee Quarrels suspects there's more to the story than he is being told. And when his father just as mysteriously disappears two days later, John Lee knows there is trouble in store for him. 

At first it seemed like a routine death in a run of the mill house on a residential street that could be anywhere in small town America. An elderly woman who sat down in her recliner to take a nap and never woke up. But Sheriff Weber would soon learn there was nothing routine about this case at all. When an autopsy revealed that she had been murdered, things take a bizarre turn. The sheriff discovers that there were many people who had reason to want Edna Knowles dead, among them relatives she had cheated out of an inheritance, two adult stepchildren she had treated cruelly, and a high ...

It’s a hot, dry summer in the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona, and the heat and the drought have old-timers fearing a wildfire could break out at any time, as they had in other parts of the state. But the shops and restaurants are filled with seasonal residents and tourists who are in town to escape even worse temperatures in the desert cities of Tucson and Phoenix. Locals and tourists alike are thrilled when the Rim Country Renegades came to town for the annual Pioneer Days celebration, recalling the days of the Wild West with cowboy poetry and putting on their trick roping and...

Life has been difficult lately for Somerton County Deputy Sheriff John Lee Quarrels. He's on the trail of a sexual predator, his love life is in turmoil, his soon-to-be ex-wife just served him with divorce papers, someone has stolen his police car and is using its radio to broadcast offensive jokes, a 350-pound redneck named Baby Bubba just tried to brain him with a shovel, and all of that happened before John Lee shot the dead guy.

Everybody seems to have gone crazy in the little mountain community of Big Lake, Arizona. Neighbors are threatening violence, eco-protestors are on the march, flower children are camping in the nearby forest, two of Sheriff Jim Weber's deputies have gotten into a fistfight in the ButterCup Café, the grocery store manager has locked himself in his office and won't come out, bears are chasing dogs into houses, and somebody has stolen the town's mascot.

The long, terrible war years are over and the Nazis have been defeated. America's victorious soldiers are finally home, but the country they returned to was not the one they left. As they tried to pick up the pieces of their lives, to some it seemed like everything had changed. Women who had gone into the factories to produce the bombs, airplanes, and tanks needed to defeat the enemy were not always happy to embrace the pre-war roles once expected of them. They wanted to stay on the assembly line, not return to the kitchen. Negro soldiers who had fought for their country were now expected ...

Big Lake High School’s star quarterback seems to have it all. Handsome, popular with the girls, adored by the fans, and with a talent that his coach is convinced will take him to the big time in professional football. So when Gary Gunkel goes missing a week before the homecoming game, some people in town believe he's just a typical young man sowing his wild oats. But when the missing boy's mother shows Sheriff Weber a series of gruesome threatening letters he has received the sheriff agrees that there might be something more sinister happening. Even more startling, his investigation soon ...

Willie Chandler didn’t even want to go fishing that dreary, rainy spring morning, and he darned sure didn’t want to spend any time with his rude, crude mooch of a brother-in-law, Larry Munson. But yet he found himself standing on the edge of the lake in the early morning drizzle, listening to Larry brag about how many women he had bedded and how many fish he had caught. It was enough to tick off even the most affable person, and when Willie finally had enough of Larry’s braggadocio, he stalked off, intending to climb up the steep mountainside to the road and walk home. Instead, he ...

When a young Apache man is found hanging from a tree on Cat Mountain, Sheriff Jim Weber and FBI agent Larry Parks go on the hunt for the killers and by the time their investigation is over, the idealistic cover is ripped from the little mountain town of Big Lake, revealing old prejudices, resentments, and hatred. In their search for justice, Sheriff Weber and Parks encounter Native American activists, a kinky couple whose passion burns as hot as their tempers, a teenager with excess baggage, and a father and son team of small town bullies, to name just a few.

A simple trip to town, a chance meeting with a pretty young woman, and a few words was all it took for Lucas Wirtz to flee his family farm and the abusive father who dominated it. Following Rachel McNally to the big city, he had no idea how much his life and the world around him would change. Chronicling the days leading up to World War I and the events that followed, Tinder Street is the first book in a saga that will take readers from rural farms to a major industrial city in the Midwest, across an ocean where German U-boats lurk waiting for a target to come within range of their deadly ...

The opening of Big Lake’s new medical marijuana dispensary caused quite a stir in the little mountain town, drawing debates before the Town Council and protesters to the site even as the building was being remodeled. With the doors now open and business flourishing, a crew of diehard protesters led by a big man who is used to getting his way continues to picket the business, harassing both employees and customers. But nobody expected the carnage that would happen on a rainy night when a call at home informs Sheriff Jim Weber of a robbery gone wrong at the dispensary that leaves five ...

The phone call to the Big Lake Sheriff's office was no more than a curiosity to begin with. A couple calling to check on the welfare of a bruised and battered young man they had found stranded along the highway. A young man who claimed to be Sheriff Weber's son. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in town soon afterward and is evasive about his reasons for being there, the sheriff's instincts tell him the man has come looking for trouble. Little does Weber know that those two events will set in motion a series of accusations, crimes, and confrontations that will have two experienced ...

When Somerton County "bad girl" Leona Darling goes missing, Deputy John Lee Quarrels is ordered to find her. How hard could it be? Just look in the nearest gin mill, right? But Leona was nowhere to be found. As he begins asking questions, John Lee discovers that Leona was a badge bunny, a cop groupie who was well-known on a less than professional basis by many of his fellow lawmen. He also discovers that asking questions can get you into trouble, especially when the people you are asking wear badges, carry guns for a living, and have something to lose.

It’s Fall, the special time of year the locals in the little Arizona mountain town of Big Lake call the sweet season between when the summer visitors have gone back to their homes in the crowded desert cities and when the snow has accumulated enough to draw the ski crowd. Things are moving at a slower pace for now as people draw a deep breath and recoup their energy and sanity from the hectic summer just behind them. But when three mischievous teenagers looking for adventure find the body of a murdered Forest Ranger, they get much more than they bargained for. Soon Sheriff Jim Weber and ...

When mysterious fires begin plaguing the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona, it doesn't take Sheriff Jim Weber long to realize that a serial arsonist is on the loose and has to be stopped before somebody dies or the entire forest goes up in flames. With the help of C.C. Callahan, a beautiful Deputy Fire Marshal, the sheriff begins the hunt while dealing with an upstart newspaper publisher hell-bent on smearing his good name and ruining his reputation. As the fires continue, fingers of blame are pointed and everybody in Big Lake wonders whose home or business will be the next.

Winter is a special time in the charming little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona. Fireplace smoke rises from chimneys as kids build snowmen or skate on the frozen surface of Miller’s Pond, neighbors help neighbors shovel sidewalks and driveways, and there’s nothing like enjoying a hot toddy or a mug of cocoa to warm up after a busy day. But when a shocking act of violence leaves a family man dead and a suspect on the run, Sheriff Jim Weber and his deputies launch a manhunt that is hampered by the rough mountain landscape, back-to-back snowstorms, reluctant witnesses, lies, and even a ...

Life may seem idyllic in the small mountain town of Big Lake, but there are dark secrets here. When a small child goes missing from his dysfunctional home the clues are few, and the ones Sheriff Jim Weber and his deputies do have are confusing. The boy's playmates describe a giant with an orange head and someone else claims to have seen a spaceship. Could something that bizarre be true, or is the culprit closer to home? Is the missing boy's mother really who she says she is? And what about her live-in boyfriend, a loser with a reputation for violence? Weber calls in a crack FBI team that ...