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Civil engineer Owen Allison is called home to West Virginia by his mother, who’s convinced that a skeleton unearthed by a construction crew belongs to Owen’s late father–a highway commissioner believed drowned decades ago when a dam burst.

Owen’s brother, George, the current commissioner, is battling alcohol, a failed marriage, local skulduggery and tomato-hurling environmentalists, one of whom is murdered alongside Georgels incriminating fingerprints.

It seems a great many people in town are harboring skeletons in their closets, especially Owen’s own family. He digs deep into the infrastructure of the past for answers to the mounting tragedies of the present–built on the cracked foundation of deception, lies, secrets and murder.

“A wonderful blend of superbly developed–and often eccentric–characters…and suspense, spiced with some of West Virginia’s legendary skullduggery-encrusted politics.”
–FORBES

” Billheimer’s ability to reach his characters souls steers Highway Robbery on a steady course.”
–FT. LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL

“With his easygoing style and meticulous attention to detail, Billheimer not only entertains but raises some philosophical questions in this morally complex story of government corruption and the battle between development and preservation.”
–PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “

…A first-rate crime novel…characters are so vividly drawn they threaten to wander off the page and into the real world.”
–BOOKLIST