A Season for Killing — Carl T. Smith

A SEASON FOR KILLING is a character-driven suspense novel by Carl T. Smith (LOWCOUNTRY BOIL, CAROLINA FIRE and others) set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina amidst a labyrinth of corporate greed, murders for hire and corruption that threatens the very fabric of the area. Cole Sturtevant has come into law enforcement the hard way. Raised in a blue-collar mill town in southwestern Virginia, from street cop to detective. He didn't consider college when he graduated from high school, instead, he took to the streets as a cop. It didn't take him long to realize that operating by the public's rules was not nearly as effective as operating by the lawbreakers rules, which gave birth to a checkered career that shifted his path from Virginia to South Carolina. He is, by any standards, as politically incorrect as anyone employed by a government institution. Sturtevant's partner, Carsyn Thoreau, had travelled a different course. A Brown University graduate with a Law Enforcement degree, she had considered Beaufort, SC, a stepping stone to her plan of going back to school and getting a law degree. Her theory was that seeing the law in action would make her a better attorney, and Beaufort had seemed a safe place to begin. She had not planned on Cole Sturtevant. When Sturtevant and Thoreau were dispatched to investigate what appeared to be a hit and run on a secondary highway between Beaufort and Savannah, Georgia, there had been no way to predict where that assignment would take them. Between their own observations and those of the local coroner, they quickly concluded that the “accident” had been staged. It was the beginning of a search that would lead them through a maze of corporate greed, which involves a well-respected, though corrupt, real estate mogul, gentlemen's clubs and a sociopathic killer. A dynamic cast of characters including a frightened attorney, a research genius, who maintains his own computer-generated informational network, an intelligent, young dancer and college student, who works at one of the “gentlemen's clubs” out of necessity, and a “tracker/bounty-hunter” who finds within himself a sense of humanity. Together they create a scenario that exposes murder-for-hire and the “money-men” who form a large part of the fabric of today's society. An unexpected and violent conclusion to the investigation threatens not only their lives and careers, but also leaves indelible marks on their personal relationship.