Cassie Greaves is a new teacher in Wyoming when she is faced with an incidence of bullying. Cassie sees four boys on the basketball team bully James, a studious and quiet boy. She orders the bullies to the principal's office but they just talk back to her and leave. One of them is headed for a sports scholarship and the principal is determined not to ruin a young man's life over a minor incident. However he does agree that all bullying must be deterred.

Lincoln Blair, the sports coach, is called upon to work with Cassie on solutions. Cassie is more accustomed to developing practical maths problems, such as the volume of a grain silo or barn, to interest her rural pupils. Linc explains to her that the community is becoming fractured, with resident rural families opposed to those working in a factory. The bullies - or someone else - leaves a dead rat on Cassie's school desk. Clearly the problem is escalating.

Cassie and Linc also feel a chemistry escalating between them but Linc has been hurt before when his fiancée decided she was bored in a small Wyoming town and walked out. He reluctantly introduces Cassie to his small spread; sheep, goats, herd dogs and horses. She takes to them so well that he finds himself asking her out even as the threats against her and young James escalate.

Rachel Lee has treated the subject of bullying with the seriousness it deserves. The story strikes an echo with another recent book, Catching Fireflies by Sherryl Woods. The small ranch sounds like fun but also quite isolating for its owner who continually needs to care for the animals, adding to the length of his working day. Cassie had herself been victimized as a child, so she brings a mature perspective to the tale. However there is enough pleasantness and enjoyment in the tale of community life to show us that small towns do have a lot in their favor. The title, THE RANCHER'S DEADLY RISK, is something of a misnomer, since the sports coach in the school is a rancher with a minimum ofstock and he isn't the one in peril throughout the story.