Murder in the Blue Mist — James C. Work

Old-timers know the legend, how sometimes the Blue Mist will materialize on the divide and come flowing silent and ominous down Fall River Valley. And whenever the Blue Mist has appeared, someone has disappeared. If they are ever found again, they're found with throats raked open by a three toed claw.

When Professor David Lachlan McIntyre joined the summer volunteers in Rocky Mountain National Park he was told the legend of the Blue Mist. He doesn't believe it; after all, with his Ph.D. in literature he has read just about every myth ever recorded. What he does begin to believe, however, is that he has uncovered evidence that a stealthy band of poachers is operating inside the national park, killing trophy animals and spiriting their bodies away. Then the body of an RMNP undercover investigator is found bobbing and turning in the pool beneath Chasm Falls. His throat has been ripped apart.

McIntyre can no more resist snooping than he can resist chasing rumors of long-buried manuscripts. After a heart-stopping car chase down a narrow and twisting road, McIntyre finds himself trapped in Fall River Valley with a murderer stalking him and the Blue Mist coming nearer and nearer. Should he hide in the Mist from the killer? Or hide from the Mist in the same old mine tunnel where the murderer might be waiting? Or will his attractive colleague (Dr. Henriette Palmer, whom McIntyre calls “Hank”) arrive in time with the rangers? Or will Hank put them both in jeopardy by trying to rescue him all by herself?