This is the first in the series but I had already read #2 so the characters were familiar. Tony and Thea Abernathy live in a small town in the Smokey Mountains, Tony is Sheriff and Thea is wife, mother, friend and small business owner (a quilt shop). When a shady "preacher" is killed in his car by snakes, Tony is hunting for answers about who killed him and why. There are a couple of pretty nasty characters in this one, especially the one who died and it gets all tied up in friendship and family, drugs and scamming.

I really like Tony and Theo, for one thing the story is mostly Tony's, Thea gets involved to a certain extent but not to the point of interference in the cases. When the stories talk about quilts and quilting I was afraid it would make the sheriff "weak" and the quilter the dominate personality, thankfully that isn't true at all and the books allow the professional officers to do most of the dangerous work.

Now I'm looking forward number three in the series. ( )