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2024 Barry Award for Best First Novel (nominee)
2024 Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel (nominee)
In the tradition of Craig Johnson and C. J. Box, Bruce Borgos's The Bitter Past begins a compelling series set in the high desert of Nevada featuring Sheriff Porter Beck…
Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he's back home, doing the same lawman's job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until an old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age. If that wasn't strange enough, a current FBI agent shows up to help Beck's investigation.
In a case that unfolds in the past (the 1950s) and the present, it seems that a Russian spy infiltrated the nuclear testing site and now someone is looking for that long-ago, all-but forgotten person, who holds the key to what happened then and to the deadly goings on now.
Genre: Mystery
Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he's back home, doing the same lawman's job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until an old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age. If that wasn't strange enough, a current FBI agent shows up to help Beck's investigation.
In a case that unfolds in the past (the 1950s) and the present, it seems that a Russian spy infiltrated the nuclear testing site and now someone is looking for that long-ago, all-but forgotten person, who holds the key to what happened then and to the deadly goings on now.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"Bruce Borgos' new mystery checks all the boxes: A stunning opening chapter, fascinating characters, plenty of action, intriguing story lines, wonderful humor to offset the tension, and even a hint of romance. I was sorry to see it end." - Anne Hillerman
"A thrilling and assured debut, Bruce Borgos' The Bitter Past is at once a high stakes tale of high treason in the high desert and an unflinching examination of the lasting scars that even the coldest of wars can leave behind." - Chris Holm
"A crisp jolt of cask-strength, 100-proof writing." - Craig Johnson
"Vividly set in Nevada's high desert, The Bitter Past is an emotional story about the steep cost of doing the right thing. Bruce Borgos tells a gripping tale with vivid characters at a breakneck pace - I can't wait to see what Porter Beck does next!" - Nick Petrie
"The Bitter Past is a propulsive thriller set in the barren, haunted Nevada desert, anchored by damaged characters desperate to protect the people they love from violence they thought they'd outrun. Throw in the poisonous shadow cast by America's 1950s nuclear testing program, Cold War grudges simmering for half a century, and the nail-biting tension of a race against time, and you've got rural noir at its best." - Heather Young
"A thrilling and assured debut, Bruce Borgos' The Bitter Past is at once a high stakes tale of high treason in the high desert and an unflinching examination of the lasting scars that even the coldest of wars can leave behind." - Chris Holm
"A crisp jolt of cask-strength, 100-proof writing." - Craig Johnson
"Vividly set in Nevada's high desert, The Bitter Past is an emotional story about the steep cost of doing the right thing. Bruce Borgos tells a gripping tale with vivid characters at a breakneck pace - I can't wait to see what Porter Beck does next!" - Nick Petrie
"The Bitter Past is a propulsive thriller set in the barren, haunted Nevada desert, anchored by damaged characters desperate to protect the people they love from violence they thought they'd outrun. Throw in the poisonous shadow cast by America's 1950s nuclear testing program, Cold War grudges simmering for half a century, and the nail-biting tension of a race against time, and you've got rural noir at its best." - Heather Young
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