Photos that inspired the setting for Dead Line

Photos taken by S. L. Stoner

This fifth book in the Sage Adair Historical Mystery series thrusts Sage Adair into an unfamiliar landscape and social milieu—a situation that challenges his skills and endangers his life.

It’s 1903 and a range war is brewing in Central Oregon. Extortion by an enemy sends Sage on a wild stagecoach ride into the Crooked River country’s deep canyons and parched valleys. There he finds cowboys blazing dead lines across the range land that sheep men and their animals dare not cross.

The threat is real. Already two shepherds lay dead in remote mountain meadows and soon, another sheepman dies. This time, the murderer attacks his victim in the heart of Prineville—the area’s fastest growing town.

As Sage races to avert the conflict, he uncovers why these people of the central plateau are embroiled in a crisis not of their own making. And he learns that, unless he and his unlikely allies act quickly, these hardy folk will turn on each other.

As the deaths mount, Sage faces a different kind of deadline. If he doesn’t uncover the murderer stalking the sheepmen, their restraint will snap—catapulting the entire region into a war where neighbor will slaughter neighbor. This fast-paced, well-researched and compelling novel lays bare the historical forces that threatened and, ultimately, shaped Central Oregon and its people.