Indigo Ridge (the Edens, #1)

The first installment in The Edens series, this contemporary romance is set in the small town of Quincy, Montana, and intertwines a love story with a murder mystery. A brief prologue presents an unnamed voice whispering to someone at the edge of a cliff, asking if they will "fly, little bird" (ix), before urging them to step off.

Winslow "Winn" Covington, a thirty-year-old former detective with the Bozeman Police Department, moves to Quincy to become chief of police. Her grandfather, Walter "Covie" Covington, known as Pops, is the town's mayor. On her first night, Winn visits Willie's, a dive bar, where she meets Griffin, a tall, rugged stranger. The two flirt over drinks, and Winn, believing Griffin does not live in town, sleeps with him. The next morning she reports to the station, where she meets Janice, her assistant, and Officer Smith, who resents her for getting the position he wanted. At lunch, Pops brings Winn to The Eloise Inn to meet the Eden family, the town's most prominent clan. Harrison Eden, the family patriarch, joins their table alongside Griffin, his eldest son. Both are stunned, and Winn realizes her one-night stand belongs to the family she most needs to impress.

Griffin manages the Eden ranch and has five younger siblings: Knox, twins Lyla and Talia, Eloise, and Mateo. He prefers casual encounters with tourists and is furious at himself for not recognizing Winn. Days later, a ranch hand discovers a body at the base of Indigo Ridge, a towering cliff on Eden property. Griffin finds a young woman in a white dress, identified as Lily Green by a tattoo on her wrist. When Winn arrives, Officer Smith having deliberately failed to notify her, she learns that seven suicides have occurred in the community over the past decade, two at this cliff. Winn notes troubling details: Lily's car was parked miles away, she was barefoot with unscratched feet, and no shoes or flashlight were found on the trail. Griffin insists the death is a suicide. Winn resolves to investigate on her own terms.

Winn consults Cole Goodman, her former mentor at the Bozeman PD, who notes the victims were mostly women in their twenties. The autopsy reveals Lily had sex within twenty-four hours of her death, yet Melina Green, Lily's mother, insists Lily had no boyfriend, and no suicide note exists. Winn visits Griffin to ask about the trails near Indigo Ridge. He reluctantly cooperates and mentions his uncle Briggs, who lives alone in a cabin near the ridge. The conversation ends with an impulsive kiss.

Complications arise outside the investigation. Winn's ex-fiancé, Skyler, appears on her porch uninvited, and Griffin pretends to be her boyfriend to drive him off. Winn later sees Griffin with Emily Nelsen, the reporter who wrote an unflattering article about Winn's hiring, and assumes they are involved. Griffin reveals Emily was a one-night mistake from a year ago, clearing the air between them. Their relationship deepens, with Griffin spending most nights at Winn's house.

Griffin grows worried about Briggs. While fixing fence near the ridge, he encounters his uncle convinced it is October hunting season when it is June. At Briggs's cabin, Griffin notices women's cowboy boots used as flowerpots that Briggs found on a trail. Recognizing them as likely Lily's, Griffin brings them to Winn, and Melina confirms they belong to her daughter. Griffin tries to discuss Briggs's decline with Harrison, but his father refuses to engage.

After the Quincy Independence Day celebrations, Winn wakes from a nightmare and tells Griffin about her parents for the first time: Five years ago, on the Fourth of July, they were killed in a car collision, and Winn, then a patrol officer, was the first to arrive at the scene. Griffin holds her through sunrise, and they spend the day together on the ranch.

Pops has a mild heart attack. His neighbor and best friend, Frank Nigel, privately warns Winn that Briggs's ex-wife told Frank's wife, Rain, that Briggs had been physically abusive, though this claim remains unconfirmed. During a visit to Briggs's cabin, Winn discovers a leather purse monogrammed with an H on his bookshelf; inside is a wallet containing Lily Green's driver's license. Briggs says he found the items on a trail. Winn interviews him at the station, where he cooperates and denies involvement. Harmony Hardt's mother confirms the purse belonged to her daughter, a prior victim, but Melina does not recognize it. When Griffin learns Winn questioned Briggs, he is furious but concedes she was right.

Griffin asks Winn to move in with him. Pops encourages her to accept, and Griffin's siblings welcome her warmly at a dinner. That night, though neither says the words, both understand they are in love.

Fingerprint analysis reveals only Briggs's prints on the purse and wallet, with no traces from either victim. Winn suspects someone planted the items. Pops advises her to step back, and she reluctantly agrees. But while leaving his house, she notices a hubcap on Rain's Jeep that matches one found weeks earlier on the private road to Indigo Ridge, meaning Rain had driven on Eden property. Rain strikes Winn over the head, knocking her unconscious.

Winn wakes in the back of Rain's Jeep at the base of the ridge, her hands zip-tied, with a concussion and an injured shoulder. Rain forces her up the trail at knifepoint and reveals that Frank carried on secret affairs with the young women for years, communicating through handwritten notes. Rain killed four of them as punishment, staging each death as suicide, and planted Harmony's purse and Lily's wallet on Briggs's trail to deflect suspicion. Rain addresses Winn as "little bird," confirming she is the voice from the prologue. She plans to stage Winn's death as another suicide.

When Winn fails to return, Griffin searches for her and reaches Pops's house, where her vehicle remains. They find Frank drunk in his garage. He confesses that Rain killed the women and has taken Winn. Griffin races to Indigo Ridge and calls Briggs for help. Griffin's fence blockade forces Rain to turn back, and Briggs approaches from another direction. Rain drags Winn to a drop-off, but Winn fights back, absorbing knife wounds before sending Rain over the edge to her death. Griffin carries Winn down the mountain. She tells him she loves him; he says it back, but she loses consciousness.

Winn spends three days in the hospital, her heart having stopped during surgery. Frank is arrested as an accessory to murder. His confession, credit card records, and handwritten notes found under Lily's mattress confirm four of the seven suicides were murders committed by Rain. Pops moves into Winn's house in town, and Winn officially moves to Griffin's ranch.

An epilogue set one year later shows Winn and Griffin married with a son, Hudson, and a second child on the way. Briggs has moved to Harrison and Anne's place—Griffin's parents—so the family can monitor his condition. Officer Smith has been fired. On a patrol shift, Winn encounters Memphis Ward, a young mother newly hired at The Eloise Inn, heading to Knox Eden's property to rent an apartment, setting up the next book in the series. Bonus scenes depict the couple's growing family, Pops's engagement to Janice, and their wedding at The Eloise Inn, where Winn wears her mother's dress and Pops walks her down the aisle.