Fort Defiance — Jim Smith

A routine murder investigation leads District Attorney Investigator Jake Shannon neck deep into a life-and-death struggle. The body of a young teenage boy is found dumped in City Park in Bartlett, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis. Jake is called in to assist in the investigation. He is deeply shaken when he discovers the young boy is a close personal friend. Jake is already investigating possible political corruption in the Bartlett city administration, which has led to clashes between him, the Bartlett mayor, and the newly appointed chief of the Bartlett police department. As Shannon moves forward with the murder investigation these clashes become more frequent and more intense. Jake's roommate and lover, Rachel Morgan, is a homicide detective with the Memphis police department. She is under tremendous pressure to catch a serial rapist who is terrorizing a neighborhood in midtown Memphis. The stress and pressure from their individual investigations threaten their already fragile relationship. Jake's murder investigation and his investigation of political corruption appear to be related when he discovers that automatic rifles are being stolen from the Bartlett High School ROTC armory, and sold to a white supremacy group. Attempts to get him off the case come from several sources. Everything from bribery to threats of physical harm is used to stop his inquiries. Unidentified assailants target Jake and Rachel. He puts everything on the line: his job, his love, his life. Things quickly spin out of control, and Jake finds he must solve both the murder case and the corruption case before he and Rachel become the next murder victims.