A Dark Wood — Armand Croft

When Andrew MacCrimmon's wife, Karen, is shot in a home invasion, she blames him, and seeing him as a threat to her life and the lives of her children, she divorces him and gets a restraining order denying him all contact with his children. To get the restraining order lifted he must eliminate the men trying to kill him, and rid himself of the five hundred pounds of gold buried in a corner of his Palm Springs estate, gold which has led to the deaths of many people and several attempts on his own life. MacCrimmon captures the gang member who shot Karen and sells the gold. But when the gold is hijacked during transit and two law enforcement officers are killed he enters the search for the killers. Meanwhile the middle eastern group that bought the gold holds him responsible for its loss and threatens his life; the hijackers, resenting his meddling, try to kill him; and the police, who suspect him of involvement, threaten him with prison, all during the dark time in which he tries with little success to adjust to life without Karen and his children.