Publisher's Synopsis
A killer lies in wait for Charlie Robbins. It is the summer of '05 near a poor coal-mining town in the western tip of Virginia. Charlie is a likable, quirky, and harmless young man of limited abilities. A phone call to Reggie Waters, a young attorney at work in the Beltway surrounding our nation's Capital, brings Reggie to Carbon City to investigate, where he meets with indifference. New Sheriff Bannister has written off Charlie's death as an accident and does not bother to consider the possibility of foul play. One look at his old friend's dead body ignites a fury in Reggie that impels him on a quest for revenge. Reggie suspects Gunner Bartsch, a man with a sadistic streak and a history of violence. The wise and kind man who guided Reggie through his difficult years in Carbon City retired Sheriff Buster Coleridge disagrees. Coleridge believes Gunner Bartsch came out of prison a better man. Reggie must attend to his legal responsibilities in D.C., where he is saddled with the research to support Bellwether Technologies CEO Thornton Hodgkiss. Hodgkiss faces racketeering charges under the 1970 RICO law. How do the bizarre events along the Beltway play into Charlie's murder? Is Buster Coleridge's assessment of Gunner Bartsch valid? What is behind Reggie's lust for revenge? Fast-paced dialogue and vivid characters take the reader on a journey to a surprising conclusion in a cozy contemporary mystery with an edge.
