Big Tree

The spotlight is on Rio County's first female Sheriff, and everyone wants answers ...

Newly elected West Texas Sheriff Mare Carlson prepares for her hometown's 140th anniversary. There are decorations on the light poles, Rosemary is selling her famous burritos at triple-price, and a parade marches from the elementary school to the courthouse ... and there's a murder.

It's happened before, but not often, and the man killed was a harmless drunk who was crippled thirty years ago. It's a case with no context, an execution without reason. But Mare is former United States Marine Corps Military Police, and she's starting to see some horrifying coincidences from her time in Afghanistan.

The unlikely named town of Big Tree is small, but Mare's few suspects are spread out over hundreds of miles of Chihuahuan Desert, and one of them is a trained killer.