Blood Ties, Paperback/Lori Armstrong

Given the trainwreck my life has become, I've earned my cynical attitude. I'm trapped in a dead-end job at the Bear Butte County Sheriff's Office--a position I took out of desperation after the brutal murder of my Lakota half-brother. Three years have passed, his case is cold, and my coping mechanisms--tequila, cigarettes and dubious men--no longer serve as excuses for my grief; they define who I am. Welcome to my world--Julie Collins, harbinger of doom and a sucker for lost causes. So when the body of a sixteen-year-old white girl surfaces and the death details are alarmingly similar to my brother's murder, Kevin Wells--my best pal and local PI--admits he'd been hired to find the missing kid before she turned up dead. I'm roped into helping Kevin tie up loose ends regarding the girl's disappearance...and that's when things begin to unravel. Lies are revealed. Bullets start flying. Yet nothing--not even death threats--will stop me from digging for the truth and finding the justice for this girl that my brother was denied. But the killer is willing to kill again to make sure these secrets stay buried. And this time, I'm in the crosshairs.