Em Hansen mysteries

Em Hansen works as a mudlogger among a mostly coarse crew of working men. Though she suffers the ill will of the majority, Em is doggedly attached to her work, which involves recording data about mud samples, even as the arrival of a coolly elegant woman geologist increases the sexism quotient. The first death claims Em's mentor Bill, a careful man whose car skids out of control; next to go is young Willie, apparently crushed to death by wild horses....

Against her better judgment, Em - broke, unemployed, and desperate for something to take her mind off her father's recent death - accepts this less-than-ideal job: A U.S. senator sends her to Santa Rosa, California, to investigate his daughter Janet's death. He thinks something Janet uncovered at her job as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm got her killed, and he wants Em to find out what it was. What at first seems like a straightforward...

Forensic geologist Em Hansen lands in the middle of a 5.2 earthquake in Salt Lake City, but rather than studying the quake, Em, at the behest of the FBI, must investigate the murder of a fellow geologist, killed only hours after the tremor.

A white water trip through the Grand Canyon goes off-course when Em Hansen's husband is accused of murdering a fellow rafter.