Tensleep

Some people would call Meeteetse, Wyoming, a one-horse town. But, in reality, there are plenty of horses - just not very many people. Crouching between the high peaks of the Absorakas Mountains and the lonely badlands of the Big Horn Basin, Meeteetse draws its thin living from the nearby oil fields and ranches and the occasional tourist. Neighbors know each other's business all too well in Meeteetse. The dueling gossips at the Blue Ribbon Cafe and the A&W - not to mention the Cowboy Bar regulars - make sure of that. Yet much like in the oil business, sometimes the most interesting facts are hidden beneath the surface. . . . In her tiny office in the dingy Blackfeet Oil Company trailer where she works as a "mudlogger, " Em Hansen makes a living out of tracking what's beneath the surface of the endless Wyoming prairie. Often the only woman on the isolated oil rig, Em has perfected the art of the low profile - both personally and professionally. And it's that very detachment that allows her to detect an unusual pattern of events on the rig. Bill Kretzmer, the Blackfeet Oil Company geologist, was a meticulous man - and Em's friend and mentor. Yet when his pickup truck overturns one night on a familiar road, his death is chalked up to carelessness. No one, except Em, notices that the private files in which he kept his own drilling notes are missing. Em's curiosity soon attracts the unwanted attention of Ed Meyer, the boorish chief engineer. Meyer's attention can be dangerous - as any woman who knows him can attest. But is there more to his harassment than his standard leering, macho routine? As Em pursues her intuitions, she discovers friends she never knew she had on the rig - and at leastone murderous enemy. Tensleep marks the debut of both the exceptionally talented Sarah Andrews and her endearing hero - geologist Em Hansen.