Dead Tunes: A Dakota Mystery

His music pulled on their heartstrings...

Until someone at the Big Jammer River Music Festival pulled a string tight around Hal Birchard's neck. To Sheriff Karen Okerlund Mehaffey and her detective-uncle, Marek Okerlund, the reclusive musician was a head-scratching mystery—his origins as murky as those of the strange fiddle he'd played that had even staid Dakotans tapping their feet.

Karen is doing a tap dance of her own, trying to get her young sister-in-law emancipated as a minor without tipping off the girl's drug-addict mother. As for Marek, he just wants to survive his daughter's headbanging practice sessions for a summer concert that can't come soon enough.

Picking out the killer in a deadly symphony of suspects, from festival contestants to judges with secrets, is no easy task. Will Karen and Marek tune in to the killer in time for a satisfying resolution or will the case come to a discordant end?

DEAD TUNES is a character-driven police procedural. Ninth in series. Word Count: 78,000. Occasional profanity. Minimal gore.