Into Thin Air [signed]

Mountain man, ex-hippie, and single father, Sheriff Kurt Muller feels like an outsider in his hometown of Aspen, Colorado. Old enough to remember Aspen's more rustic years, Muller can't quite get used to its identity as "Glamour Gultch," where ski bums, Latino migrant workers, and extravagant jet-setters live in uneasy proximity. In this volatile mix, Muller finds his personal code of ethics is more and more at odds with the compromises of elected office.But even for Muller there's nothing ambiguous about a dead man floating down Roaring Fork River. A beautiful doctor identifies the John Doe as an acclaimed Argentine journalist, and Muller, mesmerized by her stories of brutality and corruption in Argentina, finds himself taking unusual and unprofessional risks to solve the crime which comes to haunt him when the woman vanishes. Implicated in her disappearance and suddenly the FBI's target in a drug-trafficking case based on his radical past, Muller searches desperately for a way to clear himself and protect his family from sinister forces on either side of the law. As he presses ever closer to the truth, Muller confronts Aspen's changing ethos and, ultimately, an unresolved family tragedy that has haunted his life.Tough, inventive, and deeply human, Into Thin Air is page-turning suspense at its very best.From the Paperback edition.