Possible new psychological thriller, crime novel from Alan Hounshell.  Copyright 2020/2021

Synopsis background:

Pregnant women have been disappearing from poor income families living in trailer parks infested with crime and drug problems across the state.  The authorities don’t seem to care and haven’t put much effort into solving the cases.  More than 120 pregnant women have been taken in the last five years from all the Kentucky Counties and some counties bordering Kentucky. 

The women are kept secured in a cabin in the middle of an abandoned strip mining operation whose closest neighbor is five miles away.  There are no roads or trails going up to the strip mine, but a small river lies two miles below it.  None know what fate awaits them or their unborn children.  There are no leads, bodies, or clues other than their demographic profile.  A serial killer is suspected, but it’s much more than that.

Paisley Hunter, a retired Chicago Police Detective, (24 year veteran) left the big city to a quieter life and slower pace of work.  She recently moved to Wolfe County, Kentucky life six months ago with her 15-year-old daughter Laura Gail.  She is raising her daughter by herself since her EMT husband Sean was killed a year ago.  It was a case that she could not solve, and it was considered a random killing.  Using her husband’s life insurance money, she buys a farm next to a mystery loving widower and opens an ice cream shop.  Paisley thinks she has found paradise, but what she has stumbled onto is murder in a small town full of eccentric characters and a local police force out of its league that is ran by the sadistic and unlikeable Sheriff Gerald R. Stone.  As Paisley tries to stay out of the investigation, it’s brought to her front door when a kidnapped pregnant woman escapes and hides in her back room storage room of her ice cream store.  The victim is stalked and killed in the ice cream shop where her body is later discovered by Laura Gail.  Working with the Deputy Sheriff Duke Starr who thinks he has a chance to solve the case, Paisley begins to investigate the abductions and murders on her own.  What she finds is a conspiracy that runs to one of the highest offices in the state and a small town serial killer who is smart, well informed, and allowed to kill for pleasure and money.  He also may have a connection to one of her old Chicago murder cases that was never solved.

As Paisley, her inquisitive daughter, the wanna-be detective neighbor, and the deputy sheriff dig deeper, they find out that the babies are being sold on the black market for $500,000 each.  Moreover,  the mothers are being pimped out to a society of men with sick fantasies about having intercourse with pregnant women.  As Paisley becomes involved, she draws the attention of the serial killer who seems to have a personal connection to Paisley.  He starts leaving her taunting notes of his escapades, his plans to abduct more women, including her daughter.  He has also started to leave body parts nicely carved up like meat in packages for her in the local grocery store’s meat section. 

Will Paisley solve the crime and stop the abduction of more women and the killing spree of a sick serial killer? 

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