Someone, or some thing, is leaving bodies in the Black Hills.

Forensic science meets literary fiction in this captivating police procedural. Deep in the forests of the Black Hills, human remains are being discovered – one bit at a time. Rumors of a rogue man-eating mountain lion are spreading through the county and panic is starting to swell. Sgt. Hank LeGris of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office is feeling the pressure; he needs to find out who the dead are, and how they got that way. Hank suspects that the bodies are the result of a more sinister predator. But in order to solve the mystery, he will have to reach back into his own dysfunctional family history and pull in the only person who can get to the bottom of these strange cases – his estranged and disordered brother, the brilliant forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey.

When Sebastien arrives in the Black Hills, he takes his brother, and Detective Tiffany Reese, on a whirlwind tour of forensic thinking and deductive reasoning, not only solving the mystery of the human remains, but the murder of a local thug as well. In the process, Sebastien himself is forever transformed by his own success and by the charm and kindness of the lovely Detective Reese: “One day I hope you give yourself permission to be different, Sebastien. You’ll be happier.”

The Comfort of Distance is equal parts forensic mystery, police procedural and character study, with dashes of comedy and romance thrown in. Readers will be cheering at the end and ready for more.

A skull in one state, a torso in another. Are they connected?

Thirty years ago, the authorities didn’t think so. But the ingenious forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey is now on the case, and he believes they both belong to the same victim – an unidentified man who was shot, dismembered, scattered in two states and burned. But time is not the only thing standing in the way of the truth. A pair of professional rivals, a spy inside the sheriff’s office and a local family with a dark secret are all obstacles to untying this murderous knot.

This second book in the Sebastien Grey series finds Dr. Grey once again in the Black Hills of South Dakota and teamed up with Tiffany Reese – a shrewd and tough detective who doubles as the love of his life and the only woman who can coax him out of his awkward social isolation. Will their relationship survive the pressure of high stakes cold case work?

How can a living woman’s bones be inside a box in the morgue?

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Sebastien Grey is certain that they are. But unless he can convince the Custer County Sheriff that a long-forgotten missing persons case is a homicide, the truth may stay hidden forever.

Sebastien and Detective Tiffany Reese team up once again to solve one of the county’s most baffling mysteries. Amber Harrison disappeared ten years ago, and most people believe she left town with a new boyfriend. But others feel that the investigation was botched from the beginning. The evidence will uncover a dark conspiracy perpetrated by the most unlikely suspects.

As if that weren’t enough, an odd man visits Sebastien and promises him a large sum of money in return for his professional opinion. But the request — help prove that Native American remains were brought onto a construction site by accident — seems far too simple to be real. Something isn’t right. Will he live long enough to find out what’s really behind the strange offer?

Ryburn Dobbs is a forensic anthropologist and investigative analyst with extensive experience working with law enforcement on homicide, unidentified body, and missing persons cases. The forensic elements in his Sebastien Grey novels are based on his own casework.