February's Files (Manny Rivera #2)

A skeleton buried in a makeshift stone grave is discovered on a remote bluff overlooking Labyrinth Canyon in southeast Utah. Cause of death: a bullet to the back of the head.

The victim turns out to be a controversial investigative journalist from New York City who moved to Moab a few years earlier for some peace and quiet. That's what he found, but only for a little while. He couldn't shut off his investigative instincts and that eventually cost him his life. Even small towns have secrets worth killing for.

Manny Rivera, a Grand County deputy sheriff, is assigned the case. In pursuit of the murderer, he takes the reader on a journey involving a tragic fifty-year-old bus accident, the inner workings of a local Health Department, a talented computer hacker, and an abandoned cemetery with an elderly caretaker.

Time is of the essence, as an unsolved murder in the backcountry will inevitably inhibit tourism, Moab's sole economic driver. To solve the case, Rivera must unravel a series of four puzzling questions. In the end, he is challenged by a moral diemma, testing his committment to the letter of the law.

February's Files contains story twists which will challenge even the most avid mystery reader. It's a fast-moving story with a fascinating cast of characters. Like "Artifacts of Death," Curtin's vivid landscape descriptions provide the reader with a strong sense of place.

This is the second story in the Manny Rivera Mystery series.