The crusty owner of a local rock shop has been killed in Utah's wildlands, and ex-sheriff Bud Shumway has been asked to return to his hometown to solve the crime. He reluctantly agrees, never suspecting the case involves an old childhood friend and a pair of mysterious Incan skeletons known as the Malachites.Set at the Slickrock Cafe, deep in the sandstone fins and domes of southeast Utah, this mystery will have you laughing, scared to death, and wondering when the mysterious Black Beast will strike again. Add in a motorcycle gang, Bud's bumbling deputy Howie, a deputy sheriff who writes mysteries, a cantankerous rancher, and a cryptic Peruvian with his llamas, and there's never a dull moment. In any case, you'll find out who the Malachites really are, and they're sure not a tribe in the Old Testament.