Bear Bones: Murder at Sleeping Bear Dunes (Burr Lafayette Mystery)

Who buried Helen Lockwood in a shallow grave on South Manitou Island?

"Cutter is becoming the next Erle Stanley Gardner, master of courtroom drama...He has a knack of keeping the reader guessing with complex plotting, deceitful witnesses and romance st against the beautiful backdrop of the Sleeping Bear Dunes." - Bill Castanier, Lansing City Pulse

Helen Lockwood's boat was found drifting off Sleeping Bear Dunes with no one aboard. A year later her body was found in a shallow grave on South Manitou Island.
She'd been in court, fighting with the Park Service who had condemned her family's four hundred-acre orchard to make it part of the new Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Burr Lafayette, her lawyer, had kept the Park Service at bay for seven years, with no end in sight. Until Helen disappeared.
After her body was found, her husband, Tommy, was arrested for her murder. It turns out that he'd been trying to sell the orchards to the Park Service ever since Helen went missing.
Burr Lafayette, recently divorced and the deposed head of a major Detroit law firm, now finds himself defending Tommy. Burr, though, isn't a criminal lawyer. A man at loose ends, he's a brilliant litigator who prefers sailboats and dogs over courtrooms and clients.
The prosecutor has damning evidence and Tommy may not have been the perfect husband, but Helen had many enemies. Burr is convinced there's a clue somewhere in the dunes that will unlock the truth.

If you like John Grisham and Scott Turow, you'll love Bear Bones.