The Girl Back in Town: A small town sheriff mystery about a murdered stranger, a missing girl, and the past that followed her home.

About The Girl Back in Town: A small town sheriff mystery about a murdered stranger, a missing girl, and the past that followed her home.

The Girl Back in TownColdwater Ridge Secrets · Book 1I left Coldwater Ridge the night my best friend vanished. I came back with a badge and a promise I never kept. Fifteen years ago, the town called Dani Mercer a runaway.

The church said she was “troubled.” The sheriff closed the file and moved on. Lila Mercer joined the military, learned how to hunt lies for a living, and swore she would never come home.

Then her father’s stroke drags her back to the mountains, and a short staffed county board hands her the sheriff’s badge. On her first week in the job, a young woman is found dead at the edge of town, staged to look like she simply lay down and froze. The girl is a stranger, but the cheap woven bracelet on her wrist matches one Dani wore the night she vanished.

Lila’s gut says murder, not exposure. Her town wants her to rule it an accident. Following a trail of missing fire reports, church “retreat” flyers, and a true crime podcast that has been quietly digging into Dani’s case, Lila uncovers a burned out camp in the woods and a hidden cabin that should not exist.

With the help of Silas Ward, a scarred ex marine who knows every back road on the ridge, she starts to see a pattern of “transferred” kids that did not end when Dani disappeared. Solving this case will cost Lila her good name in a town that prefers silence. Walking away will cost her the last chance to learn what really happened to her friend.