Cash Cole

Boone's County Cash Cole

Travis to his family, TJ to his friends, and simply Boone to professionals he works with, he's a former police officer turned sheriff of Leclede County, Kansas (fictional county). Five years prior, he adopted his older brother's daughter when brother and his wife were killed in an auto accident. His father doesn't accept he's gay. His mother's loyalties are torn. Only his sister and her family support his decision to be a gay dad. Living with TJ and daughter Jessie, now twelve, is his life mate, Nick, an attorney. They have plans to move to their new home the weekend he's notified by one of the county commissioners who hired him as replacement sheriff for their recently deceased one. Seems a woman's body has turned up in the lake. One by one, bodies pile up. First one woman is found on the bank, then a second is hauled up in the water by a fisherman, miles from the first. Eventually several at once are discovered close to where the second was pulled out. Evidence points to someone who knows the woods, hunting and fishing. Soon it's apparent a hoard of bodies has escaped into Leclede Lake, but from what container? Boone frequents Shorty's Dockside, a marina and restaurant, in order to ferret information from patrons there. He observes men tossing knives into a post inside the restaurant and is told it's all in good fun. But the knives themselves rouse his suspicions. With the help of the county coroner, Maddie, her boyfriend Charlie, and the sheriff's secretary and deputy, Boone solves the crime. But not before someone shoots at him. Then Nick is T-boned and put in a coma and Jessie's arm is broken in the same accident. Now it's personal. Boone struggles to find a killer before anyone else gets hurt, while keeping his cool amongst the rednecks, hunters, and fishermen he protects. Not all of them are accepting of the new sheriff. No graphic sex, just brief kisses and hugs. No ostentatious violence, but there is swearing. This book, first in the Blue Corn series, is not a cozy mystery but is still packed with a bit of humor and a who-done-it. Mostly, it's about a struggling single dad who happens to be gay, and it's about his gaining acceptance into a community that at first doesn't appear welcoming.