Ghosted for Good: An Oregon Outback Mystery with Maxwell Wilcox -The Good Sheriff

As I shared in my recent post, Walkabout in the Oregon Outback: Wild Trout, Dead Animal Lakes, and a New Novel, the idea for Ghosted for Good, the next book in the Good Sheriff Mystery series, was born on a solitary trip through Oregon’s rugged high country.

I made the trek to unplug and reset; spend days hiking empty trails, paddling quiet lakes, and letting the noise of modern life fade into the dry air, sage, and sky. Somewhere between the haunting names of remote lakes, the smell of dust and pine, and the sharp, unmistakeable Oregon mountain air, a story started to take shape.

Finding Love Later in Life: A New Challenge

While camping under Oregon’s Dark Sky, I kept thinking about a man who believed he had done everything right. He'd been married a couple of decades, he worked hard, stayed loyal, and tried to build a family. Then, when the final bricks of the marriage crumbled, he found himself staring in the mirror, wondering who he was without the familiarity, even if unhealthy.

Alone again for the first time since his late teens, he is thrust into the strange and distant world of online dating; swiping left and right, hoping to find that “perfect” partner everyone promises is out there. Like many who have been through it, he refuses to settle but dreads the idea of being forever alone. Each connection feels like a new chance but also a new minefield, filled with misunderstandings, mismatched expectations, and the sting of being ghosted.

When he comes to understand that aloneness might be his forever, and perhaps not the worst fate, somewhere in the tangle of longing, pride, and stubborn hope, his story takes an unexpected turn and crosses into life-shattering violence.

Sheriff Maxwell Wilcox Returns

The Oregon outback gave me the perfect backdrop for this story. A place that doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve been through; one that reveals the truth of yourself regardless of wishful outcomes.

After the first book in the series, dozens of readers told me they thought Sheriff Maxwell Wilcox, the Good Sheriff, would make a great recurring character. I liked the idea, but Wilcox needed a break, some time to breathe. I figured if he wanted back on the page, he’d let me know. Then, under the whiskey-softened brilliance of Oregon’s Dark Sky, Sheriff Wilcox wormed his way back into my psyche and refused to leave. He wanted a sequel. A denouement, perhaps. Who knows; maybe even a trilogy.

Either way, I can’t write fast enough now. The story is unfolding at a Tom Cruise–like pace: frantic but controlled.

Read the Opening Scene of Ghosted for Good: A Good Sheriff Mystery

Below is a peek at the rough-draft opening scene of Ghosted for Good: the second book in The Good Sheriff Mystery series featuring Sheriff Maxwell Wilcox.

Rough Draft Chapter One - The Trail Left Behind

High in the mountains of the Oregon outback, an empty kayak rocked lazily, its stern nudged by the glistening, sun-drenched water of Deadhorse Lake. The lake lapped at its sides, holding it fast to the bank. Above, an osprey circled lower and lower, then plunged into the clear water, vanishing for only a heartbeat before bursting skyward with a pan-sized rainbow trout glinting in its talons. From the charred crown of a one-hundred-fifty-foot pine, a bald eagle watched, regal and unimpressed. Below, Western Gray squirrels chattered in the brush, clinging to the safety of branches, their tails flicking nervously as they skittered away from the eagle’s shadow. Dark-eyed juncos flitted tree to tree, their songs sharp and fleeting, while green-tailed towhees quarreled with the squirrels, weaving through the purple blooms of Littleflower penstemon and the dense buckbrush.

In the woods, a hundred feet from the kayak, a Great Basin rattlesnake slid across a blue nylon fishing vest, unconcerned with the still body inside it. The faint heat of flesh lingered, but the flat rock where the snake curled to soak in the warmth it needed to function. The rock absorbed the sun and radiated it. The body, meanwhile, had let go, its core already sinking below the temperature life required.

From a small hole in the chest, blood seeped into the high-desert dust, slowing as it darkened, clung, and dried. The body’s face held a look of startled knowing, the mouth parted, the eyes fixed.

While the world shimmered with life, creatures hungry for another day, the Oregon outback quietly accepted the blood of one who, not by their own hand, had wandered onto a trail beyond...

As I draft Ghosted for Good, I am reminded of how unforgiving and beautiful the Oregon wilderness is, much like the human heart when it is looking for love and truth.

Sometimes the hardest mysteries to solve are the ones we carry inside.

If you would like to follow along as this mystery unfolds, keep an eye here on the blog or sign up for my newsletter for updates. I will soon share Chapter Two: A Quiet Chuckle with subscribers.