
When the Golden Valley Budget is left rotting in the school's dark room, the community is turned upside down. Unbeknownst to the murderess, the victim left a folder revealing that someone has been embezzling money from the school.
As Ruth WIllows begins her senior year, she realizes the man she started dating in the summer in a new teacher, and she must end this unethical relationship. She also stumbles across the dead man in the darkroom and must do everything in her power to survive when the murderess realizes Ruth knows the whole truth.
Ruth finds herself in Sexton, Colorado, attending Holy Saints University. After last year, she wants nothing more than to stay under the radar and have an uneventful first year at college. While she deals with a lost romance and a creepy stalker, the small mountain town of Sexton has its own problems. The local sheriff must call in the hard-edged Detective Pamela Ramos of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to help solve the case.
Ruth has spent two happy years in the University program she’s always desired. As her final year in undergrad begins, Ruth discovers a mystery and that higher education is sometimes more about politics than learning. Ruth strives to find a balance between doing her job, completing her degree, and staying alive.
Ruth finds herself doing research in the African Savannah. She’s older, wiser, and thinks she knows herself better than ever before. Truly on her own for the first time in her life, can Ruth avoid getting caught up in the local politics and possibly ending the research project for everyone.
Ruth is back on American soil. She’s working in the education department in a small zoo in NY. Her coworkers are good people, but there’s a lot of history between them, and she’s the new kid in town.
After the new curator’s engagement party, Ruth finds her boss dead in the piranha tank. Newly promoted Detective Dom Scarpaci lands the case. Ruth finds it’s a nasty web that entangles the zoo, her coworkers, Dom’s family, and his Aunt Lucia’s spiritual guide.
Ruth returns home to Tall Willows Ranch to celebrate Grand-daddy’s 80th birthday. On paper, Ruth has it all, but in her heart, she misses her family, the ranch, her horse, and, in a way, her old life.
Will Ruth’s new life collide with her old life without leaving too many casualties in the wake?