The Real Deal

Two years after his wife's tragic disappearance, bestselling author John Mastenhock has moved on from the life he once lived. He has quit writing and left his Georgia home to take up a life of debauchery. But John's world is about to be turned upside down. One day while living in Florida, he is contacted by a negotiator from Hagford & Stover, a New York publishing company that has filed for protective bankruptcy. The company claims to hold secret information regarding the whereabouts of Lorry Trudeau, John's missing wife. The deal is simple: John writes the struggling company a bestseller, and the company hands him the info-and maybe the keys to his old life.

Picking up the pieces of his writing life is anything but easy. John is a haunted man-by the craft of writing itself and the murder of a woman on his parents' farm when he was a boy. Determined to keep his demons at bay, John works diligently on the promised manuscript while searching for Lorry. The information provided by Hagford & Stover leads him to a secretive town in the American South, and to a woman named Charlene Waine. Charlene is a dead ringer for Lorry Trudeau. But Charlene claims to have never met John in her life. Unraveling the mystery of Charlene's identity may include courting her, and possibly falling in love with her.

As dark forces descend upon the town in hopes of seizing the coveted manuscript, John's troubled past bubbles dangerously close to the surface. When a high-stakes cat and mouse game turns deadly, only a streetwise sheriff and his small police force can prevent one man's descent into madness from bringing an entire town to its knees.