La Quinta Cove

Blue Heaven

by C.J. Box

Twelve-year-old Annie and her ten-year-old brother, William, go fishing near their small northern Idaho community and accidentally see a murder in process. The children are spotted by the shooters and pursued. They narrowly escape into the thick woods and continue to evade their pursuers, who turn out to be retired L. A. policemen gone bad. The entire community is searching for the reportedly lost children, unaware that they are fleeing for their lives. The retired cops convince the local sheriff to allow them to “help” them in the search, but use the sheriff’s trust to give them free reign to silence the children before they can tell what they saw.

Another retired policeman arrives in the area seeking information about some marked bills from a California robbery/homicide some years back , his only unsolved death case. The case has bothered him and he wants to try to resolve it before he can enjoy his retirement.

A local rancher finds the two children hiding on his ranch and trusts their story enough to get involved.

Many twists and turns provide plenty of tension to keep the reader involved. A good read.