Kate Fox · #1
Stripped Bare
In this riveting novel from award-winning author Shannon Baker, a Nebraska county sheriff’s wife investigates a murder—and her husband is the prime suspect.
When Kate Fox receives a late-night phone call, her seemingly perfect life on the Nebraska prairie shatters in an instant.
Eldon, shirt-tail relative and owner of one of the largest cattle ranches in Grand County, has been killed.
Kate's husband, Ted, the Grand County Sheriff, has been shot and may never walk again.
And worst of all, Ted is the prime suspect in Eldon’s murder.
Desperate to clear Ted's name, Kate throws herself headlong into the hunt for the real killer.
When Kate finds herself the victim of several mysterious “accidents” she knows she’s running out of time. If she doesn’t find out who killed Eldon soon, she—or someone else in town—may be the next to turn up dead.
But a shocking confession throws everything into doubt, and as Kate keeps digging she unearths unfathomable secrets—the kind worth killing for.
Through Kate Fox, Baker evokes the beauty of the Nebraska Sandhills and a depth of charm that won her the Rocky Mountain Fiction "Writer of the Year" award multiple times.
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Start a discussionThe series
In the wind-swept expanse of Nebraska’s Sandhills, where isolation cuts deeper than silence and secrets are buried beneath endless skies, one woman stands at the edge of law and loyalty. The Kate Fox series brings the tension of rural crime to life—not through car chases or city grit, but through the slow-burning drama of small-town justice and the kind of grit that comes from knowing everyone in town…and knowing they’re not telling you everything.
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When Kate, a rancher’s wife with no badge and even less training, is thrust into the role of sheriff, her life fractures. But instead of breaking, she steps forward—into power, into danger, into truths she never asked for. Each book in the series peels back another layer of a woman balancing the unforgiving demands of the law with the messy entanglements of community and kin. Here, the crimes aren’t always clean. Motives twist through generational feuds, land disputes, and long-held grudges. And the stakes aren’t just justice—they’re survival, reputation, and the fragile trust of neighbors who are more likely to call in a favor than confess to a felony.
Atmospheric and unflinching, this series captures the loneliness of the plains and the complexity of choosing right in a world that rarely makes it easy. With dry wit, emotional depth, and a keen eye for the rhythms of rural life, these books don’t just tell a mystery—they immerse you in a landscape where justice rides on instinct, and silence is often the loudest clue of all.
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