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A. B. Guthrie

From a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist of the American West comes the first installment in a mystery series as entertaining as the Montana sky is big

 A self-made cattle baron with a bad habit of letting his stock graze on his neighbors’ property, Buster Hogue has stepped on plenty of toes in Midbury, Montana. But orneriness is a virtue in this rough and beautiful land, and Buster’s disputes have always ended amicably—until tonight. Shot in the head at a picnic outside town, the crusty old rancher is rushed to the hospital barely alive. On a night when the moon shone bright enough to take target practice by, no one saw who pulled the trigger or where the bullet came from.
 
 With a plethora of motives and no real evidence, Sheriff Chick Charleston sets out to solve his first case of attempted murder. Aided by his eager sidekick, seventeen-year-old local pitching prospect Jason Beard, the sheriff employs every ounce of his wit, intelligence, and intuition to track down the ruthless sniper. The trail ends in a climactic showdown that will change the investigative duo’s lives forever.
 
 Populated with a colorful cast of local characters and enlivened by a wry humor and A. B. Guthrie Jr.’s keen appreciation for the rhythms of small-town Western life, Wild Pitch is the story of an impossible crime and the two men clever enough to solve it.

Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

The Sheriff Chick Charleston Mysteries

Wild Pitch

Two murders shock a Rocky Mountain ranch town in this captivating suspense novel from one of Montana’s greatest storytellers

 In the two years since his last adventure with Sheriff Chick Charleston, Jason Beard has been away at college, preparing to enter the “real world” when he graduates. When he returns to his hometown of Midbury, Montana, for the summer, he expects to see big changes—but finds instead the same old peculiar place, its eccentric citizens up to familiar tricks.
 
 One of those crusty characters is F. Y. Grimsley, a prominent rancher with a nasty mean streak. The day after Grimsley accuses the residents of a nearby Indian reservation of rustling his cattle, he turns up dead, struck on the head by an object that leaves distinctive marks. Sheriff Charleston deputizes Jase, and the two pay a visit to Eagle Charlie in search of answers. Soon after the interview, Eagle Charlie turns up murdered with what appears to be the same weapon that felled Grimsley.
 
 With a potential serial killer on the loose, the sheriff and Jase are anxious to find the culprit before another body is discovered. Their investigation uncovers many dark and unexpected secrets of Midbury, but the crucial clue just might be as plain as day—if they only knew where to look.

The Genuine Article

A harsh winter and a heated land dispute make for a deadly combination in this gripping installment of A. B. Guthrie Jr.’s acclaimed mystery series 

 It’s forty degrees below zero in Midbury, Montana, and the cattle are dying. Not from the frigid temperatures, but under bizarre circumstances that stir up rumors of blood cults and UFOs. As if that weren’t bad enough, a strip-mining company has moved into town with plans to tear apart the land in search of coal.
 
 Sheriff Chick Charleston and his loyal sidekick, Jason, try to keep tensions between the outsiders and the locals from boiling over, but when a murder occurs at the Chicken Shack, the miners’ local hangout, the situation threatens to spin out of control. To save a community and a way of life that mean everything to them, the sheriff and Jase must track down a killer whose blood runs as cold as a Great Plains winter.

No Second Wind

A ruthless killer preys on the young women of Montana in this tale of suspense from a pioneer of Western fiction

 Madame Simone runs a brothel on the outskirts of Overthrust, Montana, an oil town just down the road from the ranching community of Midbury. Her business is serene, discreet, and profitable—until one of her girls is murdered.
 
 When his other deputies fail to turn up any leads, Sheriff Chick Charleston asks his college-educated colleague Jason Beard to look into the case. Jase immediately uncovers two vital clues: a mysterious stranger who publicly threatened Laura Jane on the night she was killed and a beloved piece of jewelry missing from her personal effects. Just when Charleston and Jase begin to think they are making progress, however, a teenage girl dies under frighteningly similar circumstances.
 
 To find the culprit, the sheriff and his deputy must be patient, cunning, and resourceful. Set against the backdrop of a land whose rugged beauty and vast open spaces attract dreamers and criminals alike, Playing Catch-Up is an engrossing detective story and a tribute to the unique adventure of small-town life in the West.

Playing Catch-Up

A Montana sheriff solves a quintessentially English mystery in this lively episode in A. B. Guthrie Jr.’s beloved suspense series

 Sheriff Chick Charleston is used to the big sky, wide-open spaces, and no-nonsense attitude of the American West. But when his wife suggests a trip to England to research her family history, he is happy to tag along. The Cotswolds may not be Montana, but the rolling green hills have a majestic beauty all their own. No sooner does the sheriff begin to relax, however, than his vacation is interrupted by murder.
 
 An American tourist is found face down in the Ram’s Head Inn with a knife buried deep in his back. Fearing scandal and international headlines, the local constabulary asks Charleston for help in questioning the other Yankees visiting this quaint country village. He may be a fish out of water, but the sheriff’s hard-won experience and keen understanding of human nature soon lead him deep into a tangled web of local intrigue.
 
 Filled with the droll humor, meticulous plotting, and unforgettable character studies that distinguish Guthrie’s award-winning Western fiction, Murder in the Cotswolds provides delightfully unexpected entertainment from one of America’s most acclaimed authors.