When human remains are found at the Vore Buffalo Jump, the short-staffed local sheriff’s department requests assistance from Park Service Investigators Doug and Jill Fletcher.
Welcome to the January 16th stop on the blog tour for Western Justice by Dean L. Hovey with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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Author Guest Post
I started writing twenty five years ago after making a New Year’s resolution to do something better with my time than watching television. I cranked out two chapters, then stalled, realizing I had no idea where the plot was going. After a few months of stumbling through a plot outline, I restarted the draft. I year later, I had the best mystery novel that’s ever been written. Well, at least in my own mind, that’s what it was. Fifty, or so, rejection letters later, I got the nicest rejection letter ever. The editor told me he loved the plot, then proceeded to list the problems he had with my writing. By that time, I had reached a teachable moment, where I realized that my “baby” needed plastic surgery, and I’d found the surgeon willing to work with me to correct the several major imperfections. After a year of rewriting, I resubmitted “Where Evil Hides” to the publisher and received a three-book contract.
Twenty-five years later, BWL Publishing just released my thirty-third book, “Western Justice”. From that very first book, which I thought had to be gruesome and tough, I’ve evolved to less gritty plots with more well-rounded characters. That first Pine County series had several books, all detailed police procedurals, that followed an evolving professional relationship between a young female deputy and her mentor, a seasoned sergeant.
Ten years into my writing life, I was approached by Brian Johnson, a tuba-playing friend, who cajoled me into writing a book about his hometown. Tapping into our experience with aging parents, and my wife’s suggestion to write “a British-style mystery without blood and gore”, I wrote Whistling Pines. It is a cozy set in the Whistling Pines Senior Residence, located in Two Harbors, Minnesota. I’d intended it to be a stand-alone, but when I presented a copy of the book to the tuba player, he handed me a stack of notecards with characters, plot twists, and locations “for the next book, which will include the Two Harbors Community Band.” The Whistling Pines series now includes nine books, all cozy mysteries, and all humorous and mostly bloodless.
A couple of years ago a reader asked who was writing the cozies for me. I asked why she thought someone else was writing them. “They are so different from the Pine County mysteries that the same person couldn’t possibly be writing both series.” I assured her that they were all written by me. She said I must be schizophrenic or have multiple personalities to be able to slide back and forth between the gritty and the humorous. I suppose schizophrenia is the answer.
After visiting Walnut Canyon National Monument in the 1990s, I’d been inspired to outline a plot involving a person being pushed over the edge of a cliff. That thought, and my vision of the steep trails we’d walked, bounced around inside my head for several years before I sat down and drafted what became “Stolen Past”. It went into the drawer until I was urged by a fellow author to submit the manuscript to BWL Publishing. I hesitated. Previous experience said I would submit a query, which would receive a response within a year. That would be followed by submission of a manuscript, with another year of waiting for a response. IF they wanted the book, I’d get a contract which would involve a year of edits and a future publication date, hopefully before my death. I balked. After more encouragement, I submitted a query email to BWL Publishing. To my astonishment, I received a response the next day, requesting a copy of the manuscript. By Thursday of that same week, I had a contract, an editor, and a commitment to release the first book in the Doug Fletcher series, three months later.
Since then, BWL has published about twenty of my books, across all three series. The Doug Fletcher series follows US Park Service Investigator Doug Fletcher from National Park to National Monument, and National Seashore, as he investigates crimes committed in those park locations. Doug’s first mysteries were set in northern Arizona. Since then, he’s been to Texas, Florida, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Hawaii, Montana, and most recently, Wyoming.
I love traveling to the Park Service locations, doing research, and collecting stories. Last August, my wife and I were in the Black Hills, checking out the Vore Buffalo Jump, which is a National Historic Site located in Wyoming, along I-90, and just a few miles from the South Dakota border. Visiting the actual site gave me details which added “texture” to the location and the characters. A trip to Aladdin, Wyoming, a few miles away, provided the location for much of the story. It was fun to take the story to a tiny town, Aladdin, with a population of 15. A visit to the Aladdin General Store provided a detailed view of small-town life in what used to be a booming mining town, which now exists as a stopping point for people driving off the beaten path on their way to Devils Tower National Monument.
In addition to my research trip, I spoke to the director of the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation, the owner of the Aladdin General Store, a local rancher, a gun expert, a horse-whisperer, the Crook County Wyoming Coroner, and dozens of Park Service rangers at nearby parks. Each person gave me a bit of color or information that’s included in the final book. A shy, displaced woman I met, who literally carries a .45 pistol on her hip, provided a wonderful character I included as a worker in the general store. A sassy waitress in Moorcroft, Wyoming became the co-owner of the Aladdin Cafe.
I hope the readers enjoy the natural history I’ve included in “Western Justice” along with the fun characters and twisting plot.
Excerpt from “Western Justice”
“I don’t know if you remember me, but this is Hank Stoddard. I’m the Crook County sheriff, in Wyoming.”
“I remember you, Sheriff. Have you had any shootouts lately?”
After a chuckle, Stoddard replied, “Well, we haven’t had to shoot anyone, but a body was found on a National Park Service site. I was wondering if you happened to be in the neighborhood and would be willing to take a look at it.”
“I’m in Texas right now. But you’ve intrigued me. Did you have another person fall at Devils Tower?”
“A volunteer found a body in Vore Buffalo Jump when they were cleaning up for the tourist season opening.”
I searched the recesses of my mind and vaguely remembered seeing a sign for the historic site but couldn’t recall the location. “Where is the buffalo jump?”
“It’s just west of Beulah, within sight of I-90.”
“That’s just across the border from South Dakota, right?”
“That would be the spot. I was hoping you were visiting your South Dakota in-laws and might be willing to take a peek at the mess that was once a person.”
“Let me make a couple of calls, Sheriff. We may need to make an unexpected trip to Spearfish.”
“I’d be mighty appreciative if you could make that happen. This death is strange. The coroner and I have stewed over this a lot. It appears the victim was dragged across the prairie like a horse thief, then dumped at the buffalo jump site at some point over the winter.”
“Dragged like a horse thief?”
“Dragging a horse thief across the prairie was called western justice.”
About the Book
Western Justice
by Dean L. Hovey
Published 13 January 2024
BWL Publishing Inc.
Genre: Mystery
Page Count: 242
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
When human remains are found at the Vore Buffalo Jump, the short-staffed local sheriff’s department requests assistance from Park Service Investigators Doug and Jill Fletcher.
ATV tracks lead the investigators to the victim’s boots and a hunting blind constructed on the edge of the Black Hills National Forest. With more questions than answers the Fletchers find themselves pulled into the community dynamics of tiny Aladdin (population 15) where the café and general store are the hub of information for the county.
The surprising identification of the victim only opens more questions about him, and his connection to the location of his murder. When the Fletchers follow up on the few leads provided by John Doe’s identification, they unwittingly open a can of worms.
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Excerpt
“I don’t know if you remember me, but this is Hank Stoddard. I’m the Crook County sheriff, in Wyoming.”
“I remember you, Sheriff. Have you had any shootouts lately?”
After a chuckle, Stoddard replied, “Well, we haven’t had to shoot anyone, but a body was found on a National Park Service site. I was wondering if you happened to be in the neighborhood and would be willing to take a look at it.”
“I’m in Texas right now. But you’ve intrigued me. Did you have another person fall at Devils Tower?”
“A volunteer found a body in Vore Buffalo Jump when they were cleaning up for the tourist season opening.”
I searched the recesses of my mind and vaguely remembered seeing a sign for the historic site but couldn’t recall the location. “Where is the buffalo jump?”
“It’s just west of Beulah, within sight of I-90.”
“That’s just across the border from South Dakota, right?”
“That would be the spot. I was hoping you were visiting your South Dakota in-laws and might be willing to take a peek at the mess that was once a person.”
“Let me make a couple of calls, Sheriff. We may need to make an unexpected trip to Spearfish.”
“I’d be mighty appreciative if you could make that happen. This death is strange. The coroner and I have stewed over this a lot. It appears the victim was dragged across the prairie like a horse thief, then dumped at the buffalo jump site at some point over the winter.”
“Dragged like a horse thief?”
“Dragging a horse thief across the prairie was called western justice.”
About the Author
Dean Hovey is a Minnesota-based author with three mystery series. He lives with his wife south of Duluth.
Dean’s award-winning* Pine County series follows sheriff’s deputies Floyd Swenson and Pam Ryan through this police procedural series.
Dean’s Whistling Pines books are humorous cozy mysteries centered on the residents of the Whistling Pines senior residence. The protagonist is Peter Rogers, the Whistling Pines recreation director. In Dean’s latest series his protagonist, a retired Minnesota policeman, is drafted into service as a National Park Service Investigator after a murder at a National Monument.
Giveaway Alert!
Dean L. Hovey will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway| Jan 8 | Literary Gold | Jan 9 | Sandra’s Book Club |
| Jan 10 | Kenyan Poet | Jan 10 | Long and Short Reviews |
| Jan 11 | Fabulous and Brunette | Jan 12 | Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews |
| Jan 15 | The Avid Reader | Jan 16 | Westveil Publishing |
| Jan 17 | Hope. Dreams. Life… Love | Jan 18 | The Clog Blog |
| Jan 19 | travel the ages | Jan 19 | The Pen and Muse Book Reviews |
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Thank you so much for hosting today.
Hello Readers! I appreciate the folks at Westviel Publishing, who are hosting this stop on my virtual book tour. Please register for the gift card drawing. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a message. I’ll be checking throughout the day.
Sounds like an interesting read.
Thanks for sharing the excerpt nd blurb. Sounds like a good book
This sounds like a good story.