Buffalo Jump Blues

In the fifth novel in the Sean Stranahan mystery series, Sheriff Martha Ettinger investigates the death of a Native American man at an ancient buffalo jump site while Stranahan tracks down the childhood friend of a young woman who swims in a riverside mermaid bar

In the wake of Fourth of July fireworks in Montana's Madison Valley, Deputy Sheriff Harold Little Feather and Hyalite County sheriff Martha Ettinger investigate a horrific scene at the Palisades cliffs, where a herd of bison have fallen to their deaths. Victims of blind panic caused by the pyrotechnics, or a ritualistic hunting practice dating back thousands of years? The person who would know is beyond asking, an Indian man found dead among the bison, his leg pierced by an arrow.

Farther up the valley, fly fisherman, painter, and sometime private detective Sean Stranahan has been hired by the beautiful Ida Evening Star, a Chippewa Cree woman who moonlights as a mermaid at the Trout Tails Bar & Grill, to find her old flame, John Running Boy. The cases seem unrelated—until Sean's search leads him right to the brink of the buffalo jump. With unforgettable characters and written with his signature grace and wry humor, Buffalo Jump Blues weaves a gripping tale of murder, wildlife politics, and lost love.