In a town called Truth or Consequences, somebody's hiding both.

Madrone Hunter can't catch a break - not even on vacation. A relaxing stay in New Mexico's hot springs town turns chilling the moment her host's neighbor is found dead, right after the two had fought bitterly over a property line.

Police call it suicide. The victim's son calls it murder. When Madrone starts digging, she not only finds motives but a decade of rivalries, betrayals, and a blackmail scheme that someone would kill to keep buried. As the suspect list grows, so does the danger. In a town built on secrets, will the truth cost Madrone everything?

A relaxing week off. A body on the trail. So much for vacation.

Chef and tour guide Madrone Hunter just wants one peaceful week in Arizona's Red Rock country with her brother. Instead, a hike near Cottonwood turns up the body of a former client—the same client who threatened to sue Madrone and her employer into oblivion.

Now Madrone's the prime suspect, and the threats aren't slowing down. She has to find the real killer before she becomes the next victim. Every acquaintance she interviews hides a secret sharper than her chef's knife. Can she serve up the truth before someone silences her for good?

Murder in the heat of the desert.

Gabe Ramsay had a plan: bury his past as a disgraced college professor, keep his secrets buried deeper, and spend his days guiding tourists through the sunbaked beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Rattlesnakes and sunburn, he expected. A murder weapon with his fingerprints on it, he did not.

When a developer Gabe publicly clashed with turns up dead —stabbed with Gabe's own skinning knife—he becomes suspect number one. His only ally is Madrone Hunter, the guide company's sharp-tongued chef, who's better at reading people than she lets on. Together they have to out-sleuth a killer before the desert claims Gabe as the next victim.