Marcia Muller: Cyanide Wells (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
In a riveting departure from her award-winning series starring San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone, Muller presents a new mystery set on the wild and rugged coast of northern California where people and passions twist, turn, and kills CYANIDE WELLS

Fourteen years after his wife's disappearance branded him a murderer and ruined his life, Matthew Lindstrom receives an anonymous phone call revealing that Gwen is alive... and well aware of the wreckage she left behind. Seeking answers and revenge, he comes to the isolated town of Cyanide Wells. Here, where the surrounding thick forest conceals twisted paths and old sins, Matt begins to learn the details of Gwen's new life. But before he can confront her, his ex vanishes once more. Now Matt must join forces with Carly McGuire, a local woman with secrets of her own, and begin a desperate hunt for the truth about past crimes and Gwen's fate. For hovering over him are suspicions that can destroy him once again.

Marcia Muller: Cyanide Wells. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446614211 (July, 2004), 358 p., $7.50

Marcia Muller: Cyanide Wells (USA 2003)

From the Publisher:
A hard, four-hour drive north of San Francisco leads to sparsely populated Soledad County, a combination of spectacular seashore, inland forests, and small towns steeped in gold-mining history. One of those towns is Cyanide Wells, now an artsy community, whose name comes from the miners' use of cyanide to refine ore and the time the area's water supply was tragically poisoned.

To Matthew Lindstrom, that sinister legacy is ironically appropriate for the place he finally expects to find his ex-wife, Gwen. Fourteen years earlier, her baffling disappearance branded him a murderer and destroyed his reputation and career as a photographer. Suddenly, after all this time, an anonymous phone caller tells him that Gwen is alive - and well aware of what she has done. Matt comes to Cyanide Wells looking for answers... and revenge.

Here, where the surrounding thick forest conceals twisted paths and old sins, Matt works to uncover the details of Gwen's new life. But before he can confront her, his ex vanishes once more. With his future again threatened by suspicion, Matt must join forces with Carly McGuire - a local woman with secrets of her own - and begin a hunt through Soledad's untamed landscape and an interior geography of betrayal and darkness. There perhaps lies the truth about past crimes and Gwen's fate... as well as Matt's own.

Marcia Muller: Cyanide Wells. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 0892967811 (July, 2003), 292 p., $24.95