Dead Float

Cal Claxton a former LA prosecutor now practicing law in Oregon s wine country and who works to fish has to pinch himself when his best friend Philip Lone Deer asks him to assist guiding a group of executives from a high tech firm in Portland. For a fly fisherman, it doesn t get any better than the salmon fly hatch on the Deschutes River, Oregon s legendary trout fishing venue. _x000D_ The execs, however, aren t coming just to fish. They re engaging in a conflict-resolution exercise where the future of the firm is to be determined. And Cal learns, too late, that the company s CEO is bringing his wife, the woman with whom Cal had a fling after their last Lone Deer-guided fishing trip. Cal soon broke it off, but . _x000D_ The trip through the remote Deschutes Canyon turns ugly when CEO Hal is murdered during the first night s camp. Everyone in the party is a suspect, especially Cal. And his knife and vest have disappeared. Does the fact that the company s value is about to explode play into the crime? What about the freight line running along the river? Could a hired killer have come and gone from the scene of the crime by hopping trains? As two local cops come down heavily on Cal, can he come up with a water-tight solution as he did in the tricky Portland case Matters of Doubt?_x000D_"