Badlands by CJ Box

After having read a newer Cassie Dewall book by CJ Box, I went to the library to try to find an earlier one in the series and came upon Badlands. (When I got to the end, I realized that I had read the book after this one. This is really not the way to read a series!)

Anyway, Badlands starts with Cassie taking a job in Grimstad, North Dakota in the winter. Fracking has caused a boom in the town's economy--and its crime rate. The sheriff thinks there might be some bad apples on his staff so Cassie is assigned alone to working a case of a car rollover in which a man died. She finds some of the details in the original accident report kind of suspicious. Then body parts start appearing all over town. And there are reports of a big drug shipment coming from a notorious California gang that is trying to establish itself in the area. At the same time, Cassie keeps seeing a small boy riding a bicycle in the frigid weather and it occurs to her that he might have been a witness to the accident. It's quite the page turner though the North Dakota chamber of commerce probably would not be a fan as it makes life in Grimstad sound truly grim indeed.