Dead Line: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery Of The Pacific Northwest (book 5)

This fifth book in the Sage Adair Historical Mystery series thrusts Sage Adair into an unfamiliar landscape and social milieu—a situation that challenges his skills and endangers his life. It's 1903 and a range war is brewing in Central Oregon. Extortion by an enemy sends Sage on a wild stagecoach ride into the Crooked River country's deep canyons and parched valleys. There he finds cowboys blazing dead lines across the range land that sheep men and their animals dare not cross. The threat is real. Already two shepherds lay dead in remote mountain meadows and soon, another sheepman dies. This time, the murderer attacks his victim in the heart of Prineville—the area's fastest growing town. As Sage races to avert the conflict, he uncovers why these people of the central plateau are embroiled in a crisis not of their own making. And he learns that, unless he and his unlikely allies act quickly, these hardy folk will turn on each other. As the deaths mount, Sage faces a different kind of deadline. If he doesn't uncover the murderer stalking the sheepmen, their restraint will snap—catapulting the entire region into a war where neighbor will slaughter neighbor and the innocent will die. This fast-paced, well-researched and compelling novel lays bare the historical forces that threatened and, ultimately, shaped Central Oregon and its people. This fifth book in the Sage Adair Historical Mystery series thrusts Sage Adair into an unfamiliar landscape and social milieu, a situation that challenges his skills and endangers his life. It's 1903 and a range war is brewing in Central Oregon. Extortion by an enemy sends Sage on a wild stagecoach ride into the Crooked River country's deep canyons and parched valleys. There he finds cowboys blazing dead lines across the range land that sheep men and their animals dare not cross. The threat is real. Already two shepherds lay dead in remote mountain meadows and soon, another shepherd dies. This time, the murderer attacks his victim in the heart of Prineville, the area's fastest growing town. As Sage races to avert the conflict, he uncovers why these people of the central plateau are embroiled in a crisis not of their own making. And he learns that, unless he and his unlikely allies act quickly, these hardy folk will turn on each other. As the deaths mount, Sage faces a different kind of deadline. If he doesn't uncover the murderer stalking the sheep men, their restraint will catapult the entire region into a war where neighbor will slaughter neighbor. This fast-paced, well-researched and compelling novel lays bare the historical forces that threatened and, ultimately, shaped Central Oregon and its people. "One day labor union operative, Sage Adair, is penciling his restaurant's accounts, the next day he's riding atop a runaway stagecoach. It's summer 1903, a range war is brewing out on the plains and Sage is expected to stop it. Cowboys and horses, sheep and shepherds-just a few of the things he know nothing about... But that doesn't stop him from becoming somebody's target. As he dodges sheep shooters, bushwhacking bullets and flying fists he's preoccupied with a bedeviling question. Will he win back the woman he's lost? This fifth well-researched offering in the Sage Adair Historical Mystery series, is created around actual decisions made in timber company boardrooms and the halls of Congress that endangered the social fabric of beautiful Central Oregon." -- Amazon.com viewed 5/19/2020