Northern California’s Camp Fire of November, 2018, was the deadliest and most destructive in the state’s history. It covered an area of 240 square miles, destroyed 18,800 structures including the towns of Paradise and Magalia, and caused 85 fatalities.

One person remains unaccounted for.

Ex-convict Vincent Fairchild lived with his wife in a primitive cabin near Concow. He refused to evacuate hoping he could save the structure with a well-pump and a garden hose. When the fire came too close, he grabbed his ‘bug-out’ bag and guns and raced through thick smoke and flames toward the Concow Reservoir.

While running blindly over rough forest ground, Fairchild broke his left heel in a nasty fall. He managed to hop and hobble to the water, stowed his gear and weapons on a rocky outcropping, and crawled into the water where he stayed until the fire passed over him.

Nine months later Fairchild’s widow demands the life insurance she had on him, and Dan Ballantine is sent to investigate.

Dan learns three men were murdered with the same Thirty-eight Special revolver before the fire was extinguished. A pair of sisters residing just outside the fire area, one of them a nurse, were held hostage by Fairchild and forced to treat his injuries. The evidence suggests Fairchild has an SUV and camp trailer and is living as a mountain man in the forest near Idaho’s Dworshak Reservoir.

Dan goes to Idaho.

Book List