Vengeance Road by Rick Mofina

2009
(The first book in the Jack Gannon series)

A thoroughly enjoyable book. 

The murder of a brokenhearted woman...

The body of Bernice Hogan, a troubled young former nursing student with a tragic past, is found in a shallow grave near a forest creek.

...and the chilling disappearance of her friend...

Jolene Peller, a single mom struggling to build a new life with her little boy, vanishes the night she tries to find Bernice.

...raise questions about their ties to a respected detective...

Hero cop Karl Styebeck is beloved by his community, but privately police are uneasy with the answers he gives to protect the life and the lie he's lived.

...and lead to one journalist's obsession to find the truth...

The case haunts Jack Gannon, a gritty, blue-collar reporter whose own sister ran away from their family years ago. Gannon risks more than his job to pursue the story behind Styebeck's dark secret, his link to the women, and the mysterious big rig roaming America's loneliest highways on its descent into eternal darkness.