Mark De Castrique

Sam Blackman is an angry man. A chief warrant officer in the criminal investigation detachment of the US military, he lost a leg in Iraq and has been outspoken in his criticism of his medical treatment. Then, ex-marine and fellow amputee Tikima Robertson walks into his hospital room, hinting that she has an opportunity for Sam to use his investigative skills. But before she can return, Tikima is murdered, her body found floating in the French Broad

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"Former Chief Warrant Officer Sam Blackman lost a leg in Iraq and emerged from the V.A. hospital in Asheville, NC, as a bitter civilian without a job or a future. But when he solved a series of local murders, Sam not only brought the guilty to justice but found meaning for his life. Now he and his partner, Nakayla Robertson, are opening a detective agency. They have high hopes that the thriving mountain region will provide a steady stream of cases....

"When private detective Sam Blackman agrees to help his partner and lover, Nakayla Robertson, conduct a fundraiser for orphaned twin boys, he does so to ease his conscience. The boys' parents were killed in a courtroom shootout where Sam was the key witness against the twins' father. The charity event, a nighttime ghost tour of the legendary haunted sites of Asheville, North Carolina, seems harmless enough. Sam only has to tell the story of a grief-stricken...

"Once the most polluted waterway in Western North Carolina, the toxic Pigeon River now runs pure, thanks to environmental activism. But when a water analyst is found murdered in the river, and a local festival is rocked by death threats, fire, and beatings, it is clear that someone wants to disrupt the progress of the peaceful town and its future environmental efforts. Detective Sam Blackman, an Iraqi war vet, and his partner and love interest, Nakalya...

Repurposing his life after his wife's death, Russell Mullins joins a private protection company and forms a friendship with his first client, whose suicide compels Mullins' investigation at the side of a former colleague into a dangerous conspiracy.