Dahlgren Wallace, former football star, Gulf War veteran, and former member of the Marine Corps elite Force Recon, currently lives as a trout bum. He’s put the world behind him andnow guides on an expansive, private Montana river, owned by a media mogul. When the novel opens, he’s guiding his boss’s guest, a Mormon billionaire, down that river. It looks like an unexpected friendship is born--until the billionaire is bludgeoned to death, practically under Dahlgren’s nose. By a twist of fate--or is it?--Dahlgren doesn’t witness the murder. Instead, he’s immediately suspected of the crime. He’s been framed. In an effort to defend himself, he must resort to the skills learned in Special Ops, skills he had hoped he’d never need again. As he delves further into the case, he finds himself embroiled with a band of neo-Nazi-type militia; a deadly serious, radical environmental movement; a colony of peaceful Hutterites; a kilt-wearing clandestine cattleman’s organization; and the FBI. All the while, he is led down a twisted path of discovery and into the darkest moments of Mormon history. Full of action, humor, tremendous suspense, and peopled with wonderfully surprising characters--from a Jewish deli-owner/scholar to a brilliant and taciturn ranch foreman to the former beauty-queen wife of the murder victim--Blood Atonement is a winner. Tenuto’s agile style and lightning-fast pace will make the world impatient for the next Dahlgren Wallace mystery.
