Hardrock Stiff (A Kurt Muller Mystery)

Thomas Zigal's second book about Aspen sheriff Kurt Muller (the first was Into Thin Air) is a strong, sad, exciting, and involving story. Muller's marriage has already fallen apart under the pressure of his career; now he's wondering if the strain on his six-year-old son Lennon is worth it. Another six-year-old boy--Lennon's friend Hunter Carr--is at the center of a story that begins when Hunter's grandfather, an old hardrock miner named Ned Carr, is blown up in his apparently worthless silver mine. A dedicated troublemaker, Ned has irritated everyone in the area, from the violent environmental activists called the Green Briars to an even more dangerous (and better funded) right-wing group known as the Free West Rebellion. A violent story, softened by fine moments of fatherhood.