The Dead Priest of Sedona (Mike Damson Mystery, #1)

A quiet autumn day is interrupted when MIKE DAMSON, newly hired manager of the Sedona, Arizona office of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department, receives a phone call notifying him of a body discovered by a hiker in the wilderness north of town. The caller, KEVIN RIKER, reports that a man has been killed up on the plateau above the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon.
Kevin leads the two lawmen on the trail through the West Fork Canyon. The trail is busy with hikers enjoying the autumn colors that are at their peak on November first. After several miles of hiking, a wade through the cold creek water, and a steep climb to the canyon rim, the group rests. Kevin explains that he had lost the normal trail when he found a strange circular grove of ponderosa pines where he discovered the gruesome body.