Bad Axe County

John Galligan has written several other novels but he was a new author to me and this book sounded intriguing. It is dark and atmospheric. A winter storm followed by flash floods provide the weather backdrop for this story set in southwestern Wisconsin along the banks of the Mississippi River. In the little town of Fairfield and surrounds, many people struggle to make a living. Heidi White's parents were like that, working a small dairy farm and trying to create a good life for their daughter. She was a little wild but won the title of Wisconsin Dairy Queen during her senior high school year. While on a speaking tour, she got the news that both her parents were dead; according to the local sheriff, nothing was stolen so it must have been a murder suicide. But Heidi knew her dad would never do that. When she got back to the farm, she discovered the one and only gun her dad owned, for which he did not even have real bullets, was missing, but the sheriff wasn't interested; as far as he was concerned, the case the closed.
Years later, Heidi is married to Harley Kick, manager of the Rattlers baseball team and the mother of 3 children. She is also the interim sheriff of the county after her corrupt predecessor dies. But the supporters of the former sheriff are making her life a misery with their nasty remarks and chauvinistic behavior. Still she has her supporters, people who want her to run for sheriff in the next election.
When Heidi is called to investigate an assault at the local library, committed by an out-of-towner who has disappeared, she opens an ugly can of worms into sex trafficking, embezzlement, and murder--much of which has apparently been going on for years, subsidized by the former sheriff through county funds.  Moreover, Heidi has never given up on trying to find her parents' murderer. But the odds, some of her own colleagues, and the weather are all working against her. Her husband doesn't want her to investigate because he fears for her safety after someone rams her police cruiser into the swollen Mississippi, but Heidi is relentless. Hard to read at times, but also hard to put down.
Review from Kirkus offers more information on major characters, and the NY Journal of Books provides detailed plot information.