Summer Westin Mystery Books

Summer "Sam" Westin's assignment to report on cougars in a Utah park goes horribly awry when a child vanishes from a campground and the TV news focuses on the local mountain lions as the likely culprits. As days tick by with no sign of the missing boy and media coverage continues to inflame the public, pressure grows for the park administration to kill the cougars. But Sam was one of the last people to see the child, and she has good reason to suspect a man she spotted in the shadows as little Zachary Fischer ran away from her. Can she find the truth in time to save both the child and the big cats? Readers have compared this series to Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries and to C.J. Box's early Joe Pickett series. Includes Discussion Questions for Readers and Book Clubs The Sam Westin Mysteries #1

** Winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award ** Sam Westin is working near Olympic National Park as a wildlife biologist when an explosion and fire destroy the tranquility of the wilderness. When the blaze is extinguished, a body is discovered in the embers. It’s a young woman from the park’s summer trail crew—and she’s barely clinging to life. Sensing something sinister, Sam starts asking questions. Who started the fire? Do these events have something to do with an old gold mine? Is the recent sighting of an illegal bear hunter just coincidence? Sam wants the answers—but someone else wants her out of the way before she finds them... Readers have compared this series to Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries and to C.J. Box's early Joe Pickett series. Includes Discussion Questions for Readers and Book Clubs The Sam Westin Mysteries #2

Scuba diving off the Galápagos Islands, wildlife biologist and freelance writer Summer "Sam" Westin is not only out of her element--she's plunged right into a dangerous conflict between fishermen and environmentalists... When Sam is hired to cover a marine survey expedition to the Galápagos, she jumps at the opportunity--though she has to fudge the truth about her diving expertise. But amidst the giant tortoises, marine iguanas, and schooling hammerheads of Darwin's enchanted islands, Sam gets caught up in deadly game of survival of the fittest, and her dream assignment turns into a nightmare. When her diving partner's air supply is contaminated with carbon monoxide on their very first dive, she wonders if someone is trying to sabotage the expedition. Sea cucumbers and shark fins are valuable commodities in the Asian market. How far will the poachers go? With no one watching their backs, Sam starts to suspect they may already be in over their heads--dealing with human predators more deadly than any shark... Includes Discussion Questions for Reading Groups and Book Clubs The Sam Westin Mysteries #3

A murder close to home... Nature lovers Kyla Quintana-Johnson and her mother Kim Quintana have been brutally murdered on a popular trail in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, and grief weighs heavily on Summer "Sam" Westin. Duty calls... Kim and Kyla ran Washington Wilderness Quest, an outdoor therapy school for troubled teens. When Troy Johnson, Kim's husband and Kyla's father, begs Sam to take Kyla's place as field guide on the last expedition of the year, she hesitates. Troy reminds her that the school was Kim and Kyla's dream. How can she say no? A killer on the loose... With no witnesses and few clues, the authorities seem clueless about how to investigate a double homicide in a wild area. As Sam struggles to guide her group of challenging teens through the backcountry, she begins to see signs that her friends' killer may now be stalking her .

Wildlife photographer Jade Silva's last text message is a photo of a rare jaguar at the US-Mexico border wall. When Jade vanishes, her fellow Southwestern Research Station volunteer, Sam Westin, agonizes that something terrible has happened. But finding Jade seems an almost impossible mission in a rugged area overrun by undocumented immigrants, Border Patrol agents, vigilantes, construction crews, human traffickers, drug smugglers, and violent cartel thugs. Meanwhile, the ever-increasing militarization of the Arizona-Mexico border is destroying ecosystems and trampling the rights of US citizens. Trying to rescue her friend, Sam is sucked into a maelstrom of desperation, deceit, and danger. The Sam Westin Mysteries #5

Just as society is celebrating the fade of the COVID quarantine restrictions, Sam Westin suddenly finds her life in shambles. While she and her friends were enjoying a spring snow outing in the North Cascades, an earthquake launches multiple avalanches to wreak destruction on the slopes. Now skiers are dead and Sam’s lover, Chase, is fighting for his life. In her logical mind, Sam knows that she can’t blame two wolverine poachers for the cascade of events that killed and injured so many in the mountains. But if she hadn’t needed to answer the call to rescue a trapped wolverine, she wouldn’t have been buried, and her friends would have been safely off the mountain and back home. And criminal associates of her troubled young protégé Maya wouldn’t have trashed her unoccupied house and injured her cat. Why did two teens want to capture a wolverine, and why has nobody come forward to claim their bodies? Are baby wolverines, still hidden beneath the snow, starving to death because their mother was murdered? Sam has to find the answers to bring some sanity back to her world.

With her housemate Blake away and her lover Chase also absent, Sam Westin embarks on a backpacking trip in the North Cascades, hoping to photograph the elusive gray wolves. Blake, reeling from a recent breakup, has taken a six-week job far away in Evansburg, caring for three gorillas while their owner, Dr. Grace McKenna, is on vacation. But events take a dark turn when the baby gorilla is shot by an intruder, prompting Grace’s lover, Detective Finn, to investigate. Sam’s impromptu trip becomes dangerous when she finds a corpse and then stumbles upon an injured immigrant and pack horse carrying drugs. After a gunshot forces her to flee her campsite, Sam faces a perilous cross-country journey with the injured man and horse in tow. In Evansburg, while following the trail of the gorilla shooting, Detective Finn stumbles upon a murdered woman in a nearby abandoned house and her child hiding in the gorilla barn. With both investigations going nowhere fast, it will take Sam visiting Blake and the gorillas to spot a clue that may be the link needed to solve all the crimes.