Murder at the Kerrville Folk Festival is no way to celebrate life with music, and with a bigot of a deputy sheriff in charge it's no place for a private investigator who the Austin newspaper calls the Blue-Eyed Indian. Travis' obvious Native American heritage usually doesn't affect his private investigating for Austin's music stars until he heads out into Texas Hill Country where a back woods militia is ready to give him a taste of Texas he's not had until now. Still, when smoking hot Deputy Cassie comes to Austin to help, romance heats up and there's a chance at last for the detective who never gets the girl. The trail of several murder attempts leads Travis to the dark underside of Austin, to a deal gone sour, a loose pile of cash that went with it, a mob-connected record label owner, the toughest little gun-packing gal he's ever met, a congressman who wants help for an incriminated daughter, and to a homicide detective who would like nothing better than to make life difficult for Travis. Worse, his nosing around puts Travis in the crosshairs of the kind of paramilitary enthusiasm that means stringing up and "Injun and " P.I.s like pinatas. and "Just remember, and " a friend tells Travis, and "there are people out there who can give the cold wet willies to even your worst nightmares. and " Before it is over, Travis is going to crave solitude like he never has before . . . if he survives.