Tom Hargrave is a Vermont rancher with a love for animals and a special affection for his granddaughter, Paige. After the untimely death of his daughter, Paige is left in his care, and Tom sees raising her as a chance to redeem himself for his failures as a parent. Paige is a quiet and withdrawn 11-year-old, and while Tom struggles to connect with her he keeps on trying, wishing his wife Betty were still alive to help him understand the heart of a little girl.

The trouble begins when Paige goes off into the woods to play with her best friend Alice, but only Paige comes out. She tells Tom that she and Alice were attacked, and leads him to the girl’s body. This tragic murder shocks the whole town and begins a whirlwind of events, many of them just as violent as the murder itself. The sole suspect turns himself in but he has alibis, Alice’s family thinks Paige knows more than she is willing to share, and Tom finds himself defending his granddaughter from hired detectives, emotionally crippled mothers, and a cold businessman with enough money and power to destroy him. Confrontations fuel additional deaths and the lies mount, and as her guardian Tom is challenged to carry Paige through this darkness, and protect her at all cost.

Shepherd of the Black Sheep is a bleak but fast-paced novel, in the vein of the small-town tragedies of Stewart O’Nan and Daniel Woodrell. It is the story of one man’s dedication to his kin, and it asks the listener just how far they would go in the name of family.