Cruel River: A Novel

For fans of David Swinson and Michael Farris Smith, a failed cop flees his troubled past, but yesterday’s sins-and a crop of deadly new dangers-are always just a step behind.

Charleston cop David Reed hightailed it to the rugged mountains of western North Carolina to escape some bad business back home. He’s making a meager living as a P.I. chasing down adulterers and insurance frauds, but the truth is, he spends most of his days trying to chase away his smoldering anger by chugging beer and taking anti-anxiety pills.

When a new gig comes up, Davis is reluctant, but he badly needs the cash. A migrant worker named Walter has vanished from a local farm, and his sister is desperate to find him. When a body is found in the Pigeon River, which runs past the farm, Davis assumes that it’s the missing worker, but it turns out to be a teenage girl. And when he discovers a rusty shipping container suspiciously locked tight on the grounds of the farm, his investigation leads him to Jenkins, the farm owner’s son, a senior and basketball phenom at the local high school. Jenkins’s intentions with the local girls are far from pure, but does that mean he could be the killer? And does he have a connection to Walter’s disappearance?

As Davis peels back the layers, he finds that this is no simple case but instead the devastating culmination of a much darker story. And as his own secrets begin to close in on him, Davis begins to understand that he can run-but there’s nowhere to hide.