MANNY RIVERA MYSTERY SERIESBY RICH CURTIN
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EXPLORE MOAB
... a riveting read of desert drama and mystery, very much recommended.
- Midwest Book Review on Artifacts of Death.
Perceptive storytelling energized by an admirable protagonist and refined prose.
- Kirkus Reviews on Artifacts of Death.
... an enticing pick for any mystery fan who loves the modern west and its natural wonders.
- Midwest Book Review on February's Files.
Author Rich Curtin's soft-spoken crime-solver Manny Rivera stands tall in the world of detective fiction. Rivera is smart, honest and skilled at taking a hodgepodge of clues and suspects and figuring out who did it and why. As a bonus, Rivera does his work in some of America's most beautiful country, the sculpted red rocks near Moab, Utah, and the empty landscape beyond. I love this series.
- Anne Hillerman, author of the New York Times best-seller "Spider Woman's Daughter",
a Jim Chee-Joe Leaphorn mystery.
... good detective stories. Don't miss these if you like mysteries.
- Journal Gazette and Times-Courier.
ARTIFACTS OF DEATH
A Murder Mystery in Utah's Canyon Country
by Rich Curtin
The body of a murdered ranch hand is discovered in the remote canyon country near Moab, Utah, a mecca for outdoor adventure seekers. The only clue besides a 9-mm slug in the victim's head is an ancient-Indian potsherd stuck into his chest.
Sheriff Manny Rivera is assigned to the case and judges that it's likely related to a drug deal gone bad. But he's actually up against an intelligent and cunning adversary driven by greed who's discovered a long-forgotten cave containing a collection of rare museum-quality Indian artifacts. Local politicians and merchants are exerting strong pressure on the sheriff for a quick resolution to the case as the killing is threatening to disrupt the upcoming tourist season, Moab's sole source of economic activity.
After all, who would want to explore the backcountry with a killer on the loose out there?
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ISBN# 9781453890851
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FEBRUARY'S FILES
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
A skeleton buried in a makeshift stone grave is discovered on a remote bluff overlooking Labyrinth Canyon in southeast Utah. Cause of death: a bullet to the back of the head. The victim turns out to be a controversial investigative journalist from New York City who moved to Moab a few years earlier for some peace and quiet. That's what he found, but only for a little while. He couldn't shut off his investigative instincts and that eventually cost him his life. Even small towns have secrets worth killing for.
Manny Rivera, a Grand County deputy sheriff, is assigned the case. In pursuit of the murderer, he takes the reader on a journey involving a tragic 50-year-old bus accident, the inner workings of a local Health Department, a talented computer hacker, and an abandoned cemetery with an elderly caretaker. Time is of the essence, as an unsolved murder in the backcountry will inevitably inhibit tourism, Moab's sole economic driver. To solve the case, Rivera must unravel a series of four puzzling questions.
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ISBN# 9781469908694
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TRAILS OF DECEPTION
Another Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
Protesters in downtown Moab are demonstrating against pothunters who defile ancient-Indian graves in search of valuable artifacts. A manifesto threatening stronger action in retaliation for the pothunting is received by the local newspaper. Soon thereafter, a San Francisco artifact collector is found murdered in a remote part of the LaSal Mountains. In his backpack is a freshly-dug ancient-Indian pot. Subsequent acts of lawless defiance emphasize the serious nature of the protest.
Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera is assigned the job of tracking down the cold-blooded killer. His investigation takes him to a scientific research center, the home of a curandera, a charitable hospice, and a remote part of Utah called the Big Triangle. The series of crimes threatens to derail Moab's tourist economy, so Rivera is under pressure to solve the case quickly. But clues are sparse and Rivera's well-honed sense of logic is severely tested.
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ISBN# 9781489591500
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ISBN# 9781496152855
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MOONSHADOW MURDER
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
A backcountry commune, consisting of cave-like dwellings hollowed out of an immense sandstone formation in the remote high-desert landscape west of Moab, becomes the focal point of a murder case. A nineteen-year-old girl named Sunshine, a member of the small community, mysteriously disappears one evening. She was last seen hiking from her residence into an oncoming September thunderstorm. Orin, the leader of the commune, organizes a small search party the next morning to look for her. They discover Sunshine about a mile from the commune, dead by strangulation.
Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera arrives at the crime scene and begins his investigation. He looks around at the vast empty terrain, wondering why anyone would kill a seemingly innocent young lady out in the middle of nowhere. The other residents of the commune, an unusual collection of drop-outs from society, are all potential suspects. Rivera's pursuit of the killer introduces the reader to the commune and its bizarre history, a strange backcountry hermit who lives in a camper-top pickup truck, and a picturesque ranch overlooking Labyrinth Canyon owned by a wealthy well-connected third-generation rancher. Rivera receives assistance in his investigation from Amy Rousseau, PhD, an attractive botanist who is quickly becoming his love interest.
Rivera conducts his investigation while dealing with problems caused by his inexperienced new boss, Sheriff Denny Campbell. In the end, the deputy's own life is endangered as he gets closer to understanding the motive for Sunshine's murder.
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ISBN# 9781508646556
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DEADLY GAMES
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
In the quiet library of his luxurious penthouse apartment in Washington, DC, Wallace Lamont, Chairman of a large industrial conglomerate, plots the defeat of Congressman Matthew Monroe in the upcoming primary election. The Congressman, a staunch environmentalist from southern Utah, is blocking a large contract that Lamont's firm desperately needs.
Lamont's plan is to resurrect the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1980s, a time when the hard working citizens who lived in the West and used public lands for cattle grazing, timber cutting, and mining, fought against the Bureau of Land Management and its burdensome environmental regulations. By re-igniting the flames of discontent in rural Utah, Lamont hopes to turn the voting public against Monroe.
Lamont hires a political operative by the name of Oblonsky who specializes in dirty tricks. Oblonsky arrives in Moab, Utah, and takes steps to stir up trouble. He's creative and effective, and wastes no time pitting environmentalists against cattlemen who graze their herds on public lands. Things quickly get out of hand, leading to devastating consequences for certain local citizens. Once trouble like this is started, it can be hard to rein in. It sometimes takes on a life of its own.
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ISBN# 9781532925900
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DEATH SAINT
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
New clues in an old, unsolved murder case lead Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera from Moab, Utah, to a small, remote village in the mountains of northern New Mexico. With reluctant and sometimes non-existent assistance from the local sheriff, he enters a community of people unwilling to open up with him because of a centuries-old distrust of outsiders-outsiders were the ones who stole their land grant.
He slowly penetrates their hardened attitude toward strangers and learns about a series of bizarre events which took place there fifteen years ago. As layers of the case are peeled away, he begins to understand the complexities behind a number of mysterious deaths. Local cultural beliefs-superstitions, witches, evil spells, owl power, a secret religious organization, and a strange saint-stymie his progress, complicate his investigation, and threaten his life.
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ISBN# 9781976216688
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THE SHAMAN'S SECRET
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
A member of "The Keepers of Order," an armed militia determined to hunt down the culprits who have been poaching bighorn sheep, is shot while patrolling one of the remotest parts of Utah's rugged backcountry. In pursuit of the shooter, Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera stumbles upon another crime linked to the activities of a Ute medicine man who roamed those same lands in the early 1700s. With the help of a smart, young anthropologist, Rivera plunges into the past to unravel a sequence of bizarre events underlying a shocking murder. In the end, he's once again forced to choose between enforcing the letter of the law and serving the cause of justice.
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ISBN #9781796754766
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COYOTE'S REGRET
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
Matthew and Wilma Mason, a married couple from San Francisco on a driving tour of southwest national parks, are found shot to death in the remote and rugged backcountry of southeast Utah. A revolver clutched in Matthew's hand suggests a murder-suicide, but Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera thinks otherwise. In his mind, there are too many unanswered questions. Why had the Masons, at age 68, detoured from the planned vacation route shown on their map? Why had they left the comfort of paved roads for rough, gravel back roads that led to nowhere in particular? Why had they driven to the place where they were found, next to an abandoned grass airstrip? And most peculiar of all, why were they dressed like hippies from the 1960s?
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ISBN #9798639530036
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FINAL ARRANGEMENTS
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
Iggy Webb, a Moab rockhound who makes his living finding beautiful rocks in the Utah backcountry and selling them to tourists, is found shot to death in the modest motorhome where he lives. Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera is assigned the case. The only immediate clue is a crumpled piece of notepaper in Iggy's wastebasket which has some figures written on it. Finding a motive for the killing at first seems impossible, but as Rivera peels back the layers of the case, he discovers a shocking conspiracy unlike anything he's encountered in his professional career. His investigation uncovers tentacles leading to the most unlikely places and motives driven by the darkest of man's imperfections.
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ISBN #9798758422281
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CAST A COLD EYE
A Manny Rivera Mystery
by Rich Curtin
RUSTY RANDALL, a handsome young man following his dream of authoring an important work of history, sets out to uncover and record the historical past of the Whitmire Ranch since its founding in 1890. Having once served as a refuge for outlaws on the run in the remote backcountry of the Utah-Colorado border, the ranch and its early history make the project intensely interesting for Rusty who's motivated to work hard every day. Four months into his research, his body is found in a remote part of the LaSal Mountains, a small caliber bullet lodged in his brain. Were there activities going on at the ranch that Rusty would have been better off not digging into? Or was his murder related to something else altogether? Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera is assigned the case and sets out to learn the motive for the killing, and through that, identify the perpetrator.
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