The Killing Plains

By: Sherry Rankin

Narrated by: Traci Odom

From the winner of the CWA’s Debut Dagger Award.

Two victims. Twenty years apart. One elusive killer.

Crescent Bluff, West Texas. Everybody knows everybody. And everybody has a secret.

When a boy is found dead with the skin of a hare’s head in his hand, everyone knows who killed him—Willis Newland, just released from prison after serving twenty years for an identical murder.

But what if everyone’s wrong?

Detective Colly Newland reluctantly agrees to investigate a case that seems to involve the whole town, including her dead husband’s extended family. But the deeper she digs, the more secrets she unearths. And as threats against her escalate, Colly realizes someone is willing to kill to keep theirs…

©2025 by Sherry Rankin. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Red herrings and mysterious hints lead to a twisted killer.”—Library Journal

First time reading this author

I really enjoyed the book. It flows nicely and I really like how Colly tied it all together in the end.

Kept my attention

Good twists and kept me engaged - the rattlesnakes were a bit ridiculous but then again I am a NY girl so I have no idea what it’s like to live on a ranch in Texas

The haunting tale

This book kept me captivated the whole time. Great audio narration! Would recommend this book

Great book

the plot was good and the story flowed well. The best narration I've heard in a long time. I live outside the town she lives in and I think she's done our area well. I'm ready for her to release another book🙂

it was a really good story

really enjoyed the story it was just too many characters from my liking. and especially when you have a characters that sometimes you refer to them by their first name other times you refer to them by their last name. I had to reread chapters several times to figure out who we were talking about. but all in all it was a good book.