The Owl Thief

A woman named Utah is an artist. She makes large scale sculptures. She also sells intricate masks online. There is a worldwide bank hack that closes down banking and any electronic transactions. Right after this, a real estate agent is murdered. They find one of Utah's masks on his dead face.

Utah tries to visit the sheriff to answer any questions. The sheriff is gone and his force is following to help keep order in a nearby big city. Utah then proceeds to clear her name. She is running for the office of mayor in a tiny town. Her competition is spreading lies that Utah killed the real estate agent, and put her mask on him.

During her investigation, Utah finds that the dead real estate agent's widow was trying to sell a large plot of land she bought in town. She and her deceased husband were blackmailing men on the town council to try to swing the vote on whether the city would buy their land.

There are a large host of characters in this novel. We learn about a lot of people in this town, including the city council members/spouses, Utah's mom and step dad, the new owner of the local diner, as well as Utah's pets. It is hard to keep all the people straight. Maybe if this is a continuing series, there would be time to get to known the residents a little better.