Eleven Stolen Horses: A Novel

Eleanor Wooley is determined to start her life over in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

But when her new best friend suddenly disappears, Eleanor abandons her job as a crime reporter for The Gold Strike Tribune and sets off in desperate pursuit. 

Spurred by gut instinct, Eleanor soon leaves California and scours Northeastern Nevada during one of the hottest, driest summers on record. Obscure signs appear—an intruder’s dire warning, a casino’s mysterious graffiti, a random sighting of a killer on the run. 

In her search to find Rette, Eleanor discovers the dark world of today’s inhumane treatment of wild horses, and when the secrets of her trusted best friend’s past begin to surface, Eleanor finds herself in grave danger. With the backdrop of the American West’s high desert wilderness and its towering, rugged mountains and vast open range, Eleanor is forced to decide if continuing her search for Rette is worth losing her own life.

About Robin Somers

Robin Somers is the author of Beet Fields, a murder mystery. A founding member of the Coastal Cruisers chapter of Sisters in Crime, she’s an Emerita Lecturer in writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Robin lived in the rural foothill town of Sonora, California, in the nape of the Sierra Nevada, where she kept her horse and worked as a crime reporter for the local newspaper, an editor for the United States Forest Service, and an English teacher. In 2002, she returned to her home near the beach in Santa Cruz, California, where she lives with her husband and their Havanese, Buster. She is a passionate advocate for wild horses.

Praise for Eleven Stolen Horses: A Wild Horses Mystery

“Somers spins an engaging mystery that captures readers’ attention from the first page and keeps up the momentum as Eleanor makes smart decisions to find the truth. The protagonist’s dedication to justice—not just for her friend, but for anyone who has been wronged (including the majestic horses that have been stolen)—makes her a worthy heroine. The rural setting feels grounded and real in Somers’ descriptions: “On her right under the cape of night, sandpaper hills scraped the black horizon and the Truckee River spangled with moonlight.” The web of blackmail, thievery, and murder is made entertaining by the twists and turns of the story; at the same time, the author maintains the verisimilitude of the darker moments.

A great mystery with genuine characters and a satisfying ending.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Former crime reporter Somers (Beet Fields) delivers a solid series launch that draws on her professional experience and her advocacy for wild horses. Three years ago, Eleanor Wooley ended her turbulent marriage, moved to the small town of Gold Strike, Calif., and took a job as a crime reporter. Things have been fairly quiet ever since, but that changes when Eleanor’s best friend, Rette Kenny—who helped Eleanor purchase her first horse—vanishes without a trace. Concerned, Eleanor starts to report on Rette’s disappearance, only to have her boss remove her from the story out of concern that the women’s friendship constitutes a conflict of interest. Eleanor persists anyway, and soon unearths a potential connection between Rette’s fate, the theft of 11 horses from the corral outside a rustic mountain lodge, and the murder of a small-time Gold Strike thief. Somers effortlessly evokes the rhythms of life in a small town, infusing Eleanor’s twist-filled investigation with welcome authenticity. With a memorable lead and immersive atmosphere, this promises good things for the series to come.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Robin Somers knows the gritty corners of the Sierra Nevada, what it means to cover a crime beat, and most of all how to tell a moody, multi-layered story in mesmerizing style. Eleven Stolen Horses is a knockout.”

—Elizabeth McKenzie, author of Dog of the North

“Eleven Stolen Horses has everything you could hope for in a great mystery story: artful misdirection, cracking dialogue, a monstrous antagonist, and a protagonist who conveys toughness, brilliance, and vulnerability. But one of the book's greatest characters is the landscape itself -- beautiful and harsh, entrapping and unforgiving, a range that can transform and heal or kill at turns. The Western landscape is the kind of place where horses and people and dreams can go missing. The land is a place where someone might lose herself on purpose, or a killer could hide a body. Robin Somers's story will transport you to places where you've never been, but it stays topical and grounded in reality, confronting the scandals and tragedies that complicate old sentimental ideas about the West, including the shameful treatment of wild mustangs on BLM land. The reader will benefit from the fact that Robin Somers—like Anna Quindlen and Carl Hiassen—was a seasoned beat reporter for a daily newspaper before her career as a fiction writer. That experience comes across in every line. Somers knows how crime investigations work, and the story, even its most shocking moments, stays rooted in plausibility.”

—Dan White, author of The Cactus Eater