Corrupted Waters

Teenagers, long presumed runaways, appear one by one on a desolate road in Northern Michigan-silent, dazed, and dressed for any season but the one they’re in.Fourteen‑year‑old Noelle Hardy, missing for over a year, is found in flip‑flops and a T‑shirt in November by Halley Travis-McCarthy and her friends. She won’t speak. She won’t engage. And she’s miles from the nearest house.Days later, two more teens emerge on that same lonely stretch of asphalt. All mute. All walking. All connected.With law enforcement stretched thin, an unlikely alliance forms: newly elected Sheriff Todd Renko, the Gumshoe Readers Book Club, and the Phantom Raiders Motorcycle Club. Together, they dig into a disturbing pattern of disappearances across rural Northern Michigan-kids written off as runaways who were never running at all.In the meantime, book club leader Marsh Monet stumbles on his niece chatting with a stranger inside an online VR game. The book club steps up to trap a predator in his own web. More questions than clues emerge. Investigations collide. And the search expands to Florida and Arizona, with the help of Phantom Raiders chapters there. Is it possible a criminal network has been resurrected from the ashes of a dismantled cartel?When the McCarthy family becomes a target, the hunt turns personal. The Phantom Raiders protect their own. The Gumshoe Readers do too. Secrets always surface. And saving the missing teens becomes a race against predators who believe children are currency.A gripping, atmospheric story of found family, fierce loyalty, and the lengths we go to protect the people we love.​​​​​​(Each book in the series can be read as a standalone, though you may enjoy the character progression if you read in order.)