“Atmospheric, tense, and hard to put down! Murders On the Platte keeps you guessing until the truth finally surfaces.”

About the Author

Barry C. Donovan brings a storyteller’s eye, a photographer’s sense of place, and a deep appreciation for human stories to Murders On the Platte. With a background in marketing, photography, and service-centered work, Barry crafts suspenseful fiction that draws readers into a world of secrets, consequence, and discovery.

The inspiration for the Sheriff Cade Parker series grew out of his traveling the mountain roads of Colorado nearly every weekend since 2008; his love of exploring backwoods routes, hiking remote trails, crossing mountain rivers, following creeks and streams, and photographing the beauty, solitude, and raw power of the Rocky Mountains. Those years behind the wheel, on the trail, and behind the camera shaped his sense of place, atmosphere, and mystery, inspiring a fictional world where rugged landscapes, rushing water, and hidden places hold both breathtaking beauty and long-buried secrets.

In Murders On the Platte, Barry combines his love of storytelling, photography, and the Colorado mountains to create a suspenseful mystery where the setting is more than a backdrop, it becomes part of the story itself.

The Story Behind Buffalo Ridge

Murders on the Platte is set in Buffalo Ridge, a small mountain community where people are closely connected and the past stays close to the surface.

I wanted this story to feel heavy with atmosphere right away. That comes from the river, the mountains, the weather, and the quiet roads, but mostly from the emotional weight a place can carry. People know each other here. Traditions matter, and a single event can ripple through the entire town.

The novel explores how one person’s choices impact everyone around them.

Tragedy spreads. It reaches families, strains friendships, and changes how neighbors look at each other. It alters daily life for school kids, local business owners, volunteers, employees, and law enforcement. It shakes everyone who thought they understood the people living nearby.

That is the dynamic I wanted to explore in the story.

I avoided focusing only on the crime itself. I wanted to write about the environment around it, including the silence, the suspicion, the grief, the loyalty, and the pressure that builds when a familiar place suddenly feels unsafe.

Buffalo Ridge is fictional, but the feelings behind it are real. Every town has stories. Every community faces moments that test what people can handle, what they choose to protect, and how deeply one decision changes lives.

The book is a mystery, but it is mostly about consequence.

It shows how truth moves slowly through a tight space. It looks at the cost of staying silent. Ultimately, it is about a community forced to decide between staying comfortable with what is easy or facing what is true.

 - Barry C. Donovan -