Missing, Maybe Dead — Tom Mitcheltree

The lure of a decades-old mystery finds vacationing professor Paul Fischer in a small Oregon town, where a dying colleague persuades him to follow a cold trail to a missing wife. Irene Drexler simply vanished one July night while on a milk run to the local grocery. Her husband, terminally ill, needs closure. Paul, struggling with his own relationship issues, understands what time and perspective can do to the truth: distort it beyond recognition. Nonetheless, he starts asking questions among the locals, a secretive, close-knit group of aging hippies who hide their radical past behind gourmet coffee bars. Immediately, the message Paul gets is clear, violent and bloody: back off, or else--which only steels his resolve to know why so many people are nervous. Whatever happened here three decades ago is still a dangerous question to ask. Unfortunately, the answer may cost Paul his life.