Bud Shumway

An old hermit has been killed in Utah’s wildlands, and Sheriff Bud Shumway knows it’s murder, even though some say it was a cougar kill. Others think it was done by a Bigfoot who has roamed the area for years, killing cattle and leaving people so traumatized that they never want to go into the wilderness again. But Sheriff Shumway can’t afford to believe in Bigfoot, given the huge area he’s responsible for, most of it wildlands. Set at the Ghost Rock Cafe, high on the wild and mysterious San Rafael Swell, this mystery will have you wondering if Bigfoot might really exist.

The crusty owner of a local rock shop has been killed in Utah’s wildlands, and ex-Sheriff Bud Shumway has been asked to return to his hometown to solve the crime. He reluctantly agrees, never suspecting the case involves an old childhood friend and a pair of mysterious Incan skeletons known as the Malachites.

Rancher Mack Murphy has been buying up land in Southwest Colorado, threatening those who won’t sell, including Junior, the uncle of ex-sheriff Bud Shumway. Bud agrees to visit his uncle to help defuse things, never suspecting he would get caught right smack in the middle of Mack’s murder. And it becomes the toughest case Bud’s ever had to solve, as almost everyone is a suspect. Set in the Paradox Valley, a beautiful and remote area with a wooly Wild West history, this mystery will have you laughing, scared to death, and wondering when the mysterious Wild Man will strike again.

When ex-sheriff and watermelon farmer Bud Shumway agrees to help out his friend, Sheriff Hum Stocks, as a deputy for the winter, he never guesses he'll soon be deep in the rugged and wild Dolores Triangle, trying to solve not only the mystery of a skeleton wearing knee boots, but also the murder of rattlesnake-hunter and wannabe rodeo clown, Chicken Bottoms.

When ex-sheriff and watermelon farmer Bud Shumway and his wife, Wilma Jean, head to Montana to pursue Bud's dream of learning to fly-fish, Bud never guesses he'll soon be deeply involved in trying to solve the mystery of a missing lunch lady he's never met, as well as trying to stay off the radar of a strange religious cult that believes in immortality while plotting to kill people. Set in the magnificent Absaroka Mountains near Yellowstone National Park, this mystery will have you mystified and on edge.

When ex-sheriff and watermelon farmer Bud Shumway learns his wife, Wilma Jean, wants to sell her cafe and become a backcountry pilot, he senses his world is about to change, and not necessarily in a good way. But Bud never guesses he’ll soon be deeply involved in trying to solve the mysterious death of a crusty old Scotsman who, as he was dying, told Bud his killer was a witch’s tongue. Bud soon becomes an unwilling witness to the frenzy surrounding the hunt for the old man’s hidden treasure, and it soon appears Sheriff Howie is also getting involved.  

When ex-sheriff and watermelon farmer Bud Shumway learns that his job is on the line, he knows that big changes are coming, though he has no idea exactly what kind. And with his wife’s new business running an air-based catering service, he knows she’ll be too busy to help him figure out his now uncertain future. Add in the invasion of his little Utah town by a group of wanna-be Vikings, and his employment woes soon take backstage to solving a murder - one in which the prime suspect is his friend, Sheriff Howie.

When a Mountie shows up in Sheriff Bud Shumway's Utah office and accuses him of aiding and abetting a possible murderer in Canada’s Yukon Territory, Bud is mystified, especially since he doesn't even know the guy. And when he receives a gold-mining claim transferred to his name and a cryptic message telling him to come to the Klondike Cafe, Bud is soon on his way, even though he has no idea where the cafe is or why his help is needed.

When a mystery writer from New York shows up in Sheriff Bud Shumway's little Utah town, he doesn’t think much about it, other than to note that she seems to be avoiding him. But when a famous opera singer, also from New York, shows up shortly thereafter, Bud begins to worry that fact might follow fiction after he discovers that the writer’s latest book is about the murder of an opera singer.

When Sheriff Bud Shumway’s aunt and uncle invite him and his wife to join them for a vacation in beautiful Glacier National Park, he has no idea that he'll soon be on a search for their daughter, the same cousin Bud went to high school with and who everyone called the Jewel of the Desert. But Bud's not sure what he can do to help, especially given the strange circumstances surrounding her disappearance and the fact that she vanished some 25 years ago.

When Sheriff Bud Shumway’s Aunt Ginger asks him to deliver a stove to her new cafe in Sunnyside, Utah, Bud has no idea that he'll soon be in the middle of trying to solve how his Uncle Hank's friend, Jimmy Johnson, was killed, even though the giant three-toed track left in the middle of Jimmy's back points to the suspect as being some form of dinosaur. Soon Bud is dealing with all kinds of mayhem, from the robbery of the Sunnyside Mining Museum to missing rafts and a mysterious box found floating on the river. There's never a dull moment in the high Utah desert.

When Sheriff Bud Shumway gets a call to fly into Utah’s remote and mysterious Maze District to help recover the body of a man wearing a tuxedo, he has no idea that it’s only the beginning of a series of strange happenings, from a missing symphony orchestra to a ragtag boatman who seems to be from the long-ago past.