Sheriff Porter Beck

Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he's back home, doing the same lawman's job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until on old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age.

After a career in Army Intelligence, Porter Beck is back in Nevada and doing the same lawman’s job his father once did. His sparsely populated jurisdiction is usually very quiet. But on the night of July 4, Sheriff Beck sees a strange light streak across the dark sky. He prays it won’t crash in drought-stricken Lincoln County, where the wildfires are already burning. But it does, and the resultant explosion triggers an avalanche of death and destruction in the high desert, impacting Beck’s oldest friend, the community at large, and even his sister, Brinley.