Death by Dinosaur (Natural History Mystery, #1)

Paleontologist Collette Hillyard loves excavating fossils of ancient beasts more than anything in the world. And in the volcanic canyons just below Death Valley, California, she plans to do just that.
But what she finds on this dig with the Southern California Natural History Museum will change her life forever. For better...and for worse.
Take a journey to worlds long-gone-by with this puzzle mystery that spans millions of years of history. Find out why murder has never been so prehistoric.

If the boonies had boonies, Catherine Mullins' hometown would be it. Luckily, the advantage of living out in the middle of nowhere is there is so little to do, there's lots of time to write. And so she uses it to write loooooong novels. For more information about her tomes (and the ones that by some miracle are actually pretty short.) see her website.