So much drama...so many secrets...A compelling story that exposes many issues some surface level, others buried deep. I can't wait to read more about these characters in the future.

Another favorite by a great author. The plot of the story was very well written. The author really draws the reader in as you read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This is part of a series, which I didn't know when I started it. Still I was able to follow it well enough to review it.

This book just didn't impress me. I didn't flind the characters particularly compelling or even interesting. In fact, the main character, despite breaking boundaries of being a small town female sheriff, is fairly whiny and weak. I wanted her to own her power, but she neer really did.

I also felt that the descriptions of the reservation and life there were stereotypical and unsurprising.

i just couldnt get into this book sadly and gave up at 17% (on the kindle)...sorry but this wasnt for me, too much talk about the surroundings

Every time I thought we were getting somewhere we were not getting somewhere. Here we have a woman who ran against her cheating ex-husband for sheriff and won. And then she gets no respect in the job at all. Her family welcomes her cheating ex and his new baby mama into the family and doesn't see why she might have a problem with it. And everyone constantly talks about how she needs to date. Is there a mystery in here? Kinda. it really doesn't seem central and they don't spend as much time on it as they should.

I enjoyed reading this book, I liked the main character Kate. The setting was interesting and there was a lot going on ,prejudices ,family relationships, discrimination to name a few. I do have a longstanding interest in Native American's and this book did not disappoint. I don't want to give too much away, but would recommend this book it, is well written, and well worth a read, I liked the humour running through it as well.

Bitter Rain is the third instalment in the Sheriff Kate Fox series, set in The Sandhills, Nebraska. Sheriff Fox is rudely awakened one night by a phone call from a frantic woman. Screaming down the phone and begging for help, she says the only phrase that gives an indicatation of where she is: “I’m on my way from the rez.” Kate rushes to put on her uniform and grabs her jacket and gun before setting off in the direction of the Lakota reservation of Antelope Ridge 100 miles north of Hodgekiss. As a sovereign nation of the Lakota Sioux, it had its own government and law enforcement but still Grand County Sheriff Kate begun the hour drive towards the Rez. Along the highway she comes upon a car by the side of the road. The silver and red Ford F-150 was idling empty and had its headlights shining towards an even more concerning problem; a car laying overturned in the pasture having taken out the barbed wire fence and come to a stop. Kate was relieved that there was no one still in the vehicle as she approached, but then she notices a guy dressed in cowboy gear coming towards her. It was Spinner County Sheriff Lee Barnett and he wasn't too happy to see her. She goes for a closer look at the upended Mercury Grand Marquis but he ends up being very snarky and cold towards her and she knows exactly why. He's part of the old boys network where men believe women should stick to the kitchen, painting their tootsies and childbearing. It's a circumstance she's slowly come to accept as she's been subjected to this ever since she ran for Sheriff against her cheating ex-husband, Ted, and won in a male-dominated work environment.

Luckily, she’s impervious to their collective discriminatory mindset. Having departed the accident scene she discovers that the woman missing, and that she likely heard on the phone, was her Deputy Kyle Red Owl’s sister, Shelly. Despite the roadblocks put in her path by male members of law enforcement, Late, much to the chagrin of the guys, stands strong and continues her investigation persevering even when she had been subjected to incessant verbal sniping. After all, it was the right thing to do and she was not about to cease running down leads and searching for this young woman despite the hindrance from those who should be equally as invested in getting to the truth. As secrets and skeletons come tumbling out of the Red Owl family closet by the truckload, can Kate continue to forge a path to the truth? This is a riveting and absorbing read but what really stood out to me about it was the originality of it as it felt a refreshing take on a police procedural with it including the reservation and its natives; it's not often a book includes such cerebral and progressive details but this not only talks of their culture and lives but the rampant prejudice against them, too. I also appreciated the all-too-real issues Kate is going through surrounded by men who believe her job should be theirs. It makes for tasty reading and a complex plot that captivates and scintillates from first page to last. Highly recommended.

After her husband (the former sheriff) cheated on her, Kate Fox divorced him and ran for sheriff and won. She loves the job and is adjusting to the “good old boy” network of a county sheriff. When she receives a panicked call from a woman asking for help, she heads toward the reservation. She finds a car off the road, but there is no one there or any signs that someone was injured. She won’t give up looking for the woman, but has no idea who she is. The other county sheriffs try to convince her that whoever the woman was, she probably returned to the reservation. Her deputy, Kyle Red Owl, notifies her that his sister is missing…was she the woman in the car? An investigation that gets more twisted in a case that exposes deadly secrets from the past. I enjoyed the story, but I felt that there was too much information about Kate’s siblings which detracted from the investigation. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

The storyline centers around the Nebraska Sandhills and the crushing poverty of the Lakota at the Antelope Ridge Reservation. The cattle outnumber the humans in the area by approximately fifty to one.

Sheriff Kate Fox is called to the site of an apparent accident but finds only Sheriff Lee Barnett from a different county. He sends her away. It’s obviously good ole boy territory and as a newly elected female sheriff, she’s not totally accepted, particularly when it appears to be a local Indian issue.

But Kate had gotten a call from a terrified young female pleading for help. And the missing female turns out to be her own Deputy’s sister, Shelly. Kate is pretty much blocked in her investigation at every turn, but she does manage a small lead every now and then.

In the meantime, the area not known for friendly rain is experiencing one gully washer after another. Further hampering interview efforts besides the divisive racial issue is her own family.

There is a lot going on in this novel, the mystery, the family, and the deeply descriptive prose of the area. The author is nothing if not full of analogies and philosophical thoughts.

As a newly elected sheriff, Kate has a lot to prove—not just to the county apparently—but also to her family. There is a theme of hanging in there, overcoming, concessions, and adapting. The conclusion included a twist I certainly didn’t see coming, although all the leads were to the over-obvious. Interesting, thoughtful, deeply disturbing, and also engaging and entertaining.

Third book in the Series – I did not read the other 2 books, and it didn’t hinder me reading book 3, instead they just made it to my TBR shelf!
We follow Sheriff Kate Fox, as she helps Deputy Kyle Red Owl’s looking for his sister, Shelly, who vanishes from the nearby Lakota reservation.
Their search uncovers Red Owl family secrets, and more then just Shelly is in danger. Neighbouring Sherriff departments are more of a hinderance then a help, and the “old boys” club is not helping.
Great book, page turner from the start.
Thank you to NetGalley and Servern River Publishing for an early read of this book.

Bitter Rain Leaves a Bitter Taste

Shannon Bakers most recent addition to the Kate Fox crime thriller series centers on an investigation for a missing woman from a Lakota Reservation in Nebraska named Shelley . The titular character, Kate Fox, enlists the help of Deputy Kyle Red Owl, who is discovered to be the missing girls’ older brother.

The first pages present a good opening; strong enough to make the reader curious without giving much away sets a unique scene. Right away there is a minor inconsistency in the first chapters - Kate says she is one of seven siblings and in the next chapter she mentions that her eight siblings are meddlesome. This is confusing at first, but thankfully the eight siblings remain consistent from this point forward.

The introduction of characters like the Doomsday Preppers Rhonda and Marty carries the right amount of suspicion but seem caricature and surface level. If Baker intends them to be the red herring of the plot, she should mention them more than a few times in the first half of the novel. Neighboring Pottsville Sheriff Lee Barnett appears to be the most interesting character in so far as he appears complicated and mysterious.

What does this say about the heroine Ms. Fox? Kate as a character seems underdeveloped - if at times a little too obvious in her "hard-nosed detective who hates guns" vibe. You see glimmers of a real personality shine through only to be buried again under things unrelated to her investigation. Baker spends so much time in the protagonists head that the reader is often sifting through an internal monologue peppered with frustration over her familial struggles and her missing niece – a subplot carried over from previous novels in the series. Kate is either missing her niece, lamenting the work of the hired private investigator or taking matters into her own hands, all of which detracts from the main plot - Shelley Red Owls mysterious disappearance.

At a first glance, this novel starts strong but loses steam quickly as the narrative doesn't have a lot of forward motion. As a reader, I was so disappointed at the slow pace, the problematic portrayal of the Lakota people and the stereotypical "reservation" description that I was actually unable to finish the novel. In being written from white persons perspective, I felt like typical tropes of Indigenous people were widely exaggerated. Falling back on the "drunk indian" idea is outdated and frankly, racist. There was little history included into the narrative regarding the Lakota people, their tribe, or why the Indigenous people of Nebraska may be angry at white people. Baker could have consulted with Indigenous readers to evaluate if the picture of the Lakota people was correct. I am sad that at what could have been a gritty crime thriller that dove into the #MissingMurderedIndigenousWomen movement plays into many stereotypes and generalizations about Indigenous people sorely missed the mark.

The new sheriff gets a call in the middle of the night,.....yelling girl, says she is being chased out by the Rez ( reservation ). Sheriff goes to investigate and in the process discovers some peepers, some biased people and discovers that one she thought was a bad guy really isn’t.
A good story line. Entertaining. Not very complex.
Worth taking the time to read.

I struggled a bit with this book, mostly because it was the third book in a series, and I had not read the first two books. There was a lot going on, and having the background of the characters and situations would have been helpful. The story itself was interesting. The main character, Kate Fox, is a gutsy, stubborn sheriff in the Nebraska Sandhills. She is not only fighting crime, but also her deputies, her ex-husband, her nosy, interfering extended family, and racism against the Native Americans on the nearby reservation. There seemed to be so much going on that I sometimes struggled to keep up with all of it. The ending was unexpected and also seemed to happen quite suddenly. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a thriller with a definitely surprising ending. Arrows point the wrong way, investigations are thwarted, and baddies lurk around every corner in this riveting novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn River Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A mysterious phone call from a panicked woman. An abandoned vehicle crashed on the side of the road. A small town in the American Midwest where the cattle outnumber the people. Baker certainly set the scene and stuck to it. Kate Fox, newly minted sheriff, is still getting used to the boy’s club of the nearby sheriffs and navigating the relationship with Lakota reservation when she gets pulled out of bed by a call from a woman who is clearly terrified, but gives no real details. Haunted by the call, Fox goes out trying to find her and instead stumbles across an abandoned car accident which sets off an investigation that will uncover long buried secrets.

The mystery of what all is going on and who is hiding what in the interconnected small-town atmosphere certainly worked in this book. But, something about the constant family drama of the main character and the overly folksy language didn’t appeal to me. Perhaps it was simply that I hadn’t read the previous books and so wasn’t invested enough in the character. It was still well-worth reading and entertaining, it just didn’t tick quite all of the boxes for me.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Sheriff Kate Fox is investigating a kidnapping. The suspect list keeps growing with no answers in sight. Thus book kept me guessing from the start.

I read this book so quickly! Living out west, I love a good reservation story! Especially a thriller. This book in this series was a fabulous read. I love learning more and more about the rural Nebraska lifestyle.

Kate has one job and she does it perfectly. Great quick read!