Mark Logan, touring by bicycle, is stranded in Acreage, California, Parsnip Capital of the World, after losing his wallet. Detesting its small-town politics and gruesome restaurant fare—parsnip pie, anyone?—he longs to return to Wichita. When his wallet mysteriously turns up under a murdered young woman’s bed, he’s arrested. His public defender is buckskin-mini-skirted Stephanie Prairie Falcon. Engrossed in running for Queen of the Parsnip Festival, she neglects Mark’s defense. . .until he unearths her deep, dark secret. Still, he falls hard. Mark thinks an illiterate redneck he met in a bar stole his wallet, murdered the woman, then skillfully framed him for the crime. But how could a dim-bulb hick concoct such a sophisticated scheme? There has to be a mastermind. . . Seeking to clear his name, he embarks on a harrowing mission to track down the killer and the killer’s mysterious mentor, becoming both hunter and the hunted.