Scapegoat: A Patrick Flint Novel

Scapegoat: A Patrick Flint Novel

Book 4: Patrick Flint
Patrick Flint meets THE RIVER WILD
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Shout-outs

"As many twists and turns as a high-country trail."
Reavis Z. Wortham
Two time winner of The Spur
"A thriller that has it all...nail-biting suspense."
Danielle Girard
USA Today Bestselling Author
"Highly atmospheric and nearly crackling with suspense. Highly recommend!"
Libby Kirsch
Emmy award winning reporter and author
"Best books I've read in a long time."
Kiersten Marquet
Thriller author

Synopsis

Patrick Flint meets The River Wild

When his son is critically injured on a river trip, Patrick Flint finds himself in a race against time and a gang of outlaws who are determined the Flints won't make it out of Wyoming's Gros Ventre Wilderness alive.

“Best book I've read in a long time!” — Kiersten Marquet, author of Reluctant Promises

4.7-star series rating.

"A roller-coaster ride from the first page to the last!" — Merry, Amazon reader

Patrick Flint is looking forward to a week of fishing, hiking, canoeing, panning for gold, and camping on the Tukudika River with his family. It's a chance to redeem himself after the disastrous hunting trip he dragged them on the year before, as well as to observe big horn sheep in the wild, experience the land the Mountain Shoshone called their home, and show his parents, brother Pete, and sister-in-law Vera the wonders of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. However, when a dead body floats up before they've even pushed off, it's clear the trip is not off to an auspicious start.

Things quickly go from bad to worse. Pete and Vera surprise them with their seven young children, and Susanne is unable to convince Patrick to cancel or even scale back the wilderness adventure. Accident-prone patriarch Joe Flint is vocally unhappy with every element of the expedition. Sixteen-year-old Trish takes a wrong turn when walking her five-year-old cousin Bunny back to camp, and the two become hopelessly lost in the wilderness. Then thirteen-year old Perry Flint topples from a waterfall and sustains a severe head injury.

When Pete takes a short cut back to civilization to get help, he runs into outlaws who'd rather kill him than risk the location of their gold discovery being revealed. After Perry wakes from unconsciousness, Patrick is able to rescue Pete from the outlaws and get the family back to the river. But Joe must stay behind to search for his granddaughters, leaving the group short several experienced paddlers, with dangerous rapids ahead.

With the attacking outlaws gaining on them, the remaining party of twelve braves whitewater, wildlife, their fears about the missing girls, a deteriorating family dynamic, and the ever-present threat of Wyoming's mercurial weather in a race against time, as Perry's condition rapidly deteriorates before their eyes.

Scapegoat is the fourth book in the Patrick Flint series of thrilling mysteries, a spin-off from the What Doesn't Kill You saga. Available in digital, print, and audiobook.

If you like C.J. Box or Craig Johnson, you will love USA Today Best Selling author Pamela Fagan Hutchins' Patrick Flint series. A Silver Falchion winning author and former attorney, Pamela and her husband run an off-the-grid lodge on the face of Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains, living out the adventures in her books with rescue dogs and cats and enormous horses.

What Amazon readers are saying about the Patrick Flint Mysteries:

“A Bob Ross painting with Alfred Hitchcock hidden among the trees.”
"Edge-of-your seat nail biter."
"Unexpected twists!"
"Wow! Wow! Highly entertaining!"
“A very exciting book (um... actually a nail-biter), soooo beautifully descriptive, with an underlying story of human connection and family. It's full of action. I was so scared and so mad and so relieved... sometimes all at once!”
“Well drawn characters, great scenery, and a kept-me-on-the-edge-of-my-seat story!”
"Absolutely unputdownable wonder of a story."
"Must read!"
"Gripping story. Looking for book two!"
"Intense!"
"Amazing and well-written read."
"Read it in one fell swoop. I could not put it down."

Buy Scapegoat for a pulse-pounding mystery today!

(Book 1-3 in the Patrick Flint Series and Books 1-15 in the What Doesn't Kill You Series are available, now.)

Release date: September 6, 2020

Publisher: SkipJack Publishing

Print pages: 272

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Behind the book

 

For my dad, who gave me all my best traits and a few of my others. You have always been my hero, Papasan—totally book worthy!—and I love you.

And for Eric, without whom there would be no books, for so many reasons.

 

 

When I got the call from my father that he had metastatic prostate cancer spread into his bones in nine locations, I was with a houseful of retreat guests in Wyoming while my parents (who normally summer in Wyoming) were in Texas. The guests were so kind and comforting to me, as was Eric, but there was only one place I wanted to be, and that was home. Not home where I grew up, because I lived in twelve places by the time I was twelve, and many thereafter. No, home is truly where the heart is. And that meant home for Eric and me would be with my parents. 

I was in the middle of writing two novels at the time: Blue Streak, the first Laura mystery in the What Doesn’t Kill You series, and Polarity, a series spin-off contemporary romance based on my love story with Eric. I put them both down. I needed to write, but not those books. They could wait. I needed to write through my emotions—because that’s what writers do—with books spelling out the ending we were seeking for my dad’s story. Allegorically and biographically, while fictionally.

So that is what I did, and Dr. Patrick Flint (aka Dr. Peter Fagan—my pops—in real life) and family were hatched, using actual stories from our lives in late 1970s Buffalo, Wyoming as the depth and backdrop to a new series of mysteries, starting with Switchback and moving on to Snake OilSawbones, Scapegoat, Snaggle Tooth, and Stag Party. I hope the real life versions of Patrick, Susanne, and Perry will forgive me for taking liberties in creating their fictional alter egos. I took care to make Trish the most annoying character since she's based on me, to soften the blow for the others. I am so hopeful that my loyal readers will enjoy them, too, even though in some ways the novels are a departure from my usual stories. But in many ways they are the same. Character-driven, edge-of-your-seat mysteries steeped in setting/culture, with a strong nod to the everyday magic around us, and filled with complex, authentic characters (including some AWESOME females). 

I had a wonderful time writing these books, and it kept me going when it was tempting to fold in on myself and let stress eat me alive. For more stories behind the actual stories, visit my blog on my website: http://pamelafaganhutchins.com. And let me know if you liked the novels. 

Thanks to my dad for advice on all things medical, wilderness, hunting, 1970s, aeronautical, nature, and animal. I hope you had fun using your medical knowledge for murder!

Thanks to my mom for printing the manuscript (over and over, in its entirety) as she and dad followed along daily on the progress.

Thanks to my husband, Eric, for brainstorming with and encouraging me and beta reading the Patrick Flint stories despite his busy work, travel, and workout schedule.  And for moving in to my parents’s barn apartment with me so I could be closer to them during this time.

p.s. Dad has defied the odds and is doing great. His goal is to live with cancer, and die from old age.

 

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