New Science Fiction Writers: Came A Stranger (Theral Chronicles Book 2) by L. Bret Mills

File Size: 1067 KB
Print Length: 487 pages
Publisher: Price River Publishing; 2nd Edition edition (August 23, 2013)
Publication Date: August 23, 2013
ASIN: B00ESV9FIA

Deputy Dex Baxter is a football legend in Piedmont County, Colorado. He’s the native son who left home and made it big, first as a college All-American and later in the NFL. When the doctors diagnose his wife with cancer, he walked away from the game and moved back to his hometown with his infant daughter. Now, four years later, he’s trying to balance being a single parent with serving as a deputy sheriff. Despite the delicate balancing act and the demand on his time, Dex believes his life is finally making a turn for the better, that is, until the Sheriff gives him a special case.
For the prior two years, Piedmont authorities have been ignoring the reported disappearance of migrant workers, farm laborers and itinerant cowboys. Since tales of strange lights, invisible men, and alien creatures accompany these reports, most of the local citizens chalk the stories up to riffraff, runaway husbands, drunken cowboys, and old people with active imaginations. However, when the wife of a prominent citizen vanishes under similar circumstances, the Sheriff, now facing a tough election, asks Dex to take a few days and look into the disappearances.
In his search for the truth, Dex runs up against an impenetrable wall of lies, deliberate misdirection, and attempts on his life. However, he gains an important ally when FBI Special Agent Ren’n Kendal comes to Rex’s aid during an attempted murder. She informs him the agency suspects the disappearances are connected to a cartel involved in the smuggling of drugs and illegal workers as well as trafficking in sex slaves.
After agreeing to pool their resources, the two continue peeling away the layers of deceit and cover-up. Before they are finished, the officers expose a massive conspiracy involving local government officials as well as one of the wealthiest men in the state. The case gets even more complicated when Dex finds himself inextricably drawn to the beautiful FBI agent despite the mounting evidence she is not who she claims to be. To make matters worse, the fantastic stories of mind control, alien creatures, and men who can disappear in a flash of lightning, might not be stories at all.