Irene Riley

Everybody's Hometown Irene Riley

Sergeant Anya Jones, part Yavapai Indian and Acting-Chief-for-a-day of Prescott, Arizona's Police Department, finds herself facing the city's first double homicide in recent memory. Two of five elderly ladies collectively known in Prescott as the Forty-Fives, are slumped over their table, dead, at the Lone Star Cafe where they usually have lunch together every Thursday. The Medical Examiner suspects poisoning.

Over the next four days leading up to Halloween, Anya confronts a new permanent Acting-Chief from Los Angeles, her own fractious detective staff, and the discovery of a child's bones in Watson Lake. As if that wasn't enough, she must also tolerate a touchy-feely Mayor who means no harm, the press, and her own bad dreams.

Intertwined with the present-day story is the saga of Albert A. Andersson who arrives in Prescott in 1868 from Virginia City, Nevada where he had set type for the Daily Territorial Enterprise. Albert itches to find gold. He leaves his belongings with a young girl from his Boarding House and heads for the Arizona hills accompanied by two half-crazy brothers. He loses his gold, his belongings, and the young girl. His journey to pick up the pieces of his life takes him across America then back to Prescott, meeting many an interesting character along the way.