RIDE A DARK TRAIL
by Winter Austin
September 15 - 26, 2025 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
A Bounty of Shadows Book
Will her life philosophy, “Do right, fear no man,” get her killed?
A string of bad luck has left former Army helicopter pilot Dot Ybarra with a serious case of wrecked nerves and a need for peace and solace at her family’s Idaho ranch. Instead, she encounters a desperate mother who stumbles onto their land, begging Dot to rescue her kidnapped daughter.
There’s a bounty on the kidnapper’s head, and fugitive recovery agent T.J. Roman is not about to let that paycheck slip through his fingers. Together, he and Dot rescue the child.
But their actions set off an explosion of secrets in Euskadi. The sheriff is slinking around with a new shady sidekick, Dot’s friends are stabbed, and armed mercenaries attack her ranch, forcing her to use her hunting and archery skills to defend her family. Cornered by the unknown enemy’s three-pronged attack, Dot and her charges retreat deep into the Payette National Forest. Isolated in the mountainous forest, separated from T.J. and any help, Dot must make a hard choice: fight or walk away?
Will her first recovery job be her last?
Praise for Ride a Dark Trail:
"With sharp characters you'll want to stand up and root for, Winter Austin creates an eye-popping Idaho setting for us to enjoy with Ride a Dark Trail."
"Echoes of Yellowstone meets Magnum P.I. come together in a chilling Idaho plot you'll want to get to the bottom of."
"After reading Ride a Dark Trail, you're going to hope there's a real-life Dorothy Ybarra out there in today's world."
Book Details:
Genre: Modern Western Thriller
Published by: Tule Mystery
Publication Date: August 18, 2025
Number of Pages: 310
ISBN: 9781967678082 (ISBN10: 1967678081)
Series: Bounty of Shadows, Book 1
Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Apple | Goodreads | BookBub | Tule Publishing
Read an excerpt:
Chapter 1
His ghost always joined her for the final drag on an Ave Maria Dark Knight cigar.
He started appearing two months into her newly formed habit. Always in his sweat-stained, gray Open Road Stetson and wool-lined coat with a few less wrinkles in his face. Here, in the goats’ lean-to, where she’d taken to hiding out to have her smoke so as to not offend her mother’s senses.
At his first appearance, she swore it was a hallucination. The second time, she flipped out. With each appearance since she became more belligerent, while he grew more persistent.
“Biloba, why do you keep doing this thing?”
She blew out the smoke. “Go away, Aitonatxo.”
Her grandfather shook his head. One of the goats meandered through his transparent legs, disrupting his stern reproach. Aitona turned his withering look to the red-brown doe munching on hay.
“Goats. She just had to get goats.”
A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth as she drew on the cigar for the last time. One year after her grandfather passed, her mother had sold the last of the sheep, turned the ranch into an outfitter and hunting business, bought horses and mules for it, then goats just for the hell of it. The small herd had come in real handy in keeping the overgrowth of underbrush and weeds under control, saving the ranch a time or two from wildfires. The milking goats also made convenient pack animals when there was need for nourishment up in the mountains.
Aitona didn’t roll over in his grave. No, he came back to fucking haunt her and complain about the goats.
“Dorothy Ybarra, where are you?”
His specter vanished with her last puff of smoke. Before her mother could barge into the goats’ lean-to and give her hell for smoking in the building, Dorothy ground the butt into the bottom of her boot. One disapproving familia was enough, even if Aitonatxo was an apparition of her mind.
Angela Ybarra rounded the edge of the lean-to’s weathered support post, her pack of mutts in tow. The goats scattered, except for a leggy dark brown female who’d taken a liking to Dot and exuded copious amounts of stubborn. That doe would not be deterred by no dog.
Exactly twenty years older and just as whipcord lean as her daughter, Angela Ybarra was the polar opposite when it came to Dot’s tornado in a trailer park personality. But that didn’t stop Angela from pulling the matriarch card every chance she got.
Angela wrinkled her nose and gave Dot a pointed look but held her tongue. Dot hadn’t burned down any buildings. Yet.
Her mother reached out and scratched the doe’s withers. “I’ve got a new elk hunting party coming in later today. We’re taking them out to that nice valley for their hunt. I need to grab a few supplies for the trip. In the meantime, would you round up your gear and check it over?”
“You sure you want me up there with you?”
“I need you, Dot. This is a new group to me.”
In other words, Ama wasn’t comfortable being on her own with this bunch. Most of the hunters Angela outfitted were longtime customers she had built a strong rapport with and trusted. She took on new clients only if there was a long lull between her regulars and funds were tight.
Since Dot’s return to the ranch, she’d been her mother’s backup when one of the local sheep herders wasn’t available to ride out with Angela. Dot’s presence on hunts was a good deterrent for wannabe suitors or general dickheads. Not that Angela Ybarra couldn’t hold her own—she was Samo Ybarra’s daughter after all and had sent many a man intending ill-intent back to civilization with a limp and severe damage to his manhood. Dot, on the other hand, was less accommodating. The pervs usually woke up in the hospital, cuffed to the bedrail.
“Ama, you don’t need to earn the extra cash. I can spot you.”
“No.” Angela sliced the air with a disapproving finger. “Your army and pilot funds are yours. Don’t waste them on my business.”
“Come on!”
“I’ll hear no more of it.” Angela checked her watch. “I’m going. Be ready.” She slipped from view, her canine pack following.
Dot’s guard goat gave a very goat-like nicker as she munched on weeds bold enough to dare grow in their pen.
It might have been a year since the crash. She might have been released from physical therapy with a clean bill of health two months ago. And she might be in the best physical shape of her life since basic training and flight school. Still, Dot hadn’t spent more than two hours horseback in the last six months. Riding into the foothills of the Payette National Forest and getting to that valley her mother spoke of meant at least an eight-hour ride. Probably longer if this new hunting party wasn’t used to long hours in the saddle.
Dot groaned. Good thing she loved her mother.
She rose from the goats’ favorite climbing stump and vacated the lean-to. At the corner, she glanced back at the spot where Aitona had appeared.
He’d died while she was away at training. It ate at her for years that she hadn’t been here to see him crossed over to the other side and be with his beloved Dorothy—Dot’s namesake. Though somehow he hadn’t quite left the ranch.
He wanted to know. Or maybe she was using his specter to ask herself the question.
Why did she do this thing? She was hale and hearty, ready to get back in the air. God knew the forest service hadn’t stopped calling. Yet she couldn’t pull herself away from her current predicament.
Why?
“I’m doing it for Ama,” she said to the air.
***
Excerpt from Ride a Dark Trail by Winter Austin. Copyright 2025 by Winter Austin. Reproduced with permission from Winter Austin. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Winter Austin perpetually answers the question: “were you born in the winter?” with a flat “nope,” but believe her, there is a story behind her name.
A lifelong Mid-West gal with strong ties to the agriculture world, Winter grew up listening to the captivating stories told by relatives around a table or a campfire. As a published author, she learned her glass half-empty personality makes for a perfect suspense/thriller writer. Taking her ability to verbally spin a vivid and detailed story, Winter translated that into writing deadly romantic suspense, mysteries, and thrillers.
When she’s not slaving away at the computer, you can find Winter supporting her daughter in cattle shows, seeing her three sons off into the wide-wide world, loving on her fur babies, prodding her teacher husband, and nagging at her flock of hens to stay in the coop or the dogs will get them.
She is the author of multiple novels.
Catch Up With Winter Austin:
AuthorWinterAustin.com
Amazon Author Profile
Goodreads
BookBub - @WinterAustin
Instagram - @iasuspensewriter
Facebook - @author.winteraustin
Review:
5 stars!
Intrigue and menace abound in the foothills of the Payette
National Forest.
Ride a Dark Trail is the first book in author Winter
Austin’s thrilling new series, Bounty of Shadows, and features an emotionally
scarred former Army helicopter pilot recuperating from injuries sustained in a
crash. Dorothy “Dot” Ybarra returned home to her mother’s Idaho ranch after her
service in Afghanistan to fly for the forest service, but an accident during a
forest fire crashed her helicopter and put her in the hospital for several
weeks. Still not cleared to fly and return to work, Dot keeps busy helping her
mother run the hunting and guiding business she operates out of her former
sheep farm. Her days were pretty much the same until a young woman, bruised and
bleeding, stumbles out of the forest and onto the ranch, claiming her ex had taken
their six-year-old daughter as a hostage and was on the run, not only from law
enforcement, but from some truly dangerous people also on his trail.
I loved Dot Ybarra! She’s a strong woman carrying a load of
baggage and bad luck, but no matter what gets thrown her way, she always pushes
forward. She’s a female accustomed to commanding in male-dominated fields and
maintains her status and control without coming across as unnaturally macho,
unlike many other characters with similar backstories who are often portrayed
as such. She acts authentically and sounds genuine.
T.J. Roman is a capable and talented bounty hunter whose
past with Dot means more to him than he lets himself believe. I loved watching
them reconnect. Coincidentally, Sloane Cross, T.J.’s business partner, is Dot’s
best friend from high school, and these relationships create the perfect
opportunity for the three to join forces to find out who is after Ashley Cooper
and her young daughter.
The plot is well-paced, suspenseful, and fraught with
mystery, as several key pieces of the puzzle remain hidden until much later in
the story. Sloane and T.J. also have other cases they’re working on that slowly
begin to crossover into what’s going on with the Coopers. Keeping things real
is Dot’s mother, Angela, who is naturally anxious for her daughter’s safety,
both physical and emotional.
The Idaho setting is rural and wild, with the action
extending into the Payette National Forest. The author also incorporates local
Basque culture and language, through Dot’s family, into the story, adding an
informative and unique touch.
I highly recommend RIDE A DARK TRAIL to readers of
thrillers, action and adventure stories, mysteries, and romantic suspense.
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