Homer Hickam

Life on the ranchlands of Montana comes with more than its share of trouble. The unique people who live and work on this untamed stretch of today's American West expect it—and some of them even enjoy it. One of them is Mike Wire, a former homicide detective who once worked the decadent hills and valleys of Hollywood. Having enough of the violence of the big city, Mike has retreated to a far corner of civilization to spend his days running the Square C Ranch and pining for Jeanette Coulter, its spirited and iron-fisted owner. But Mike is soon to learn terrible things can happen beneath Montana's big skies, too. The badlands are home to more than just horses, cattle, cowboys, and laid-back rattlesnakes. Just beneath the surface are the bones of a dinosaur family that could make a fortune for whoever gets to them first. When a paleontologist and his attractive young assistants arrive at the Square C to dig, Mike senses trouble is clinging to them like Montana mud. Once discovered, those bones won't stay buried, and not everyone hunting for them is doing it in the interest of science. When a murderer begins to stalk the dinosaur hunting grounds, Mike has to combine the lessons he learned in Los Angeles with those of the Montana prairie to protect the people and the land he has come to love.