In this second thriller in the Joe Higheagle Environmental Sleuth Series, mysterious deaths are taking place in the Rocky Mountain region outside Denver, Colorado. Joe Higheagle--a full-blooded Cheyenne geologist who has recently become an overnight celebrity for bringing down a billionaire corporate polluter--is hired to investigate Dakota Ranch, where four boys have recently died from a rare form of brain cancer, and Silverado Knolls, a glitzy soon-to-be-built development. He quickly finds himself entangled in an environmental cancer cluster investigation as well as a murderous conspiracy in which friend and foe are indistinguishable, and a series of seemingly impenetrable roadblocks are thrown in his path.
While the police work to uncover if foul play could have led to the suspicious death of a heavy-equipment company owner, the unconventional Higheagle works in parallel to solve the mystery of what is killing the young boys at Dakota Ranch. His goal is to find out who is ultimately responsible for the cancer cluster and bring them to justice. His search leads him to Hayden Prescott--the suave multi-millionaire developer of Dakota Ranch and Silverado Knolls as well as a leading Denver citizen.
Will Higheagle and the police discover the truth behind the cancer cluster and the death of the business owner? Is Hayden Prescott to blame, or could it be one of Higheagle's own clients or even a shadowy third party? Most importantly, will justice at Dakota Ranch and Silverado Knolls be served before more death and treachery comes to the Rockies?
Author Biography:
Samuel Marquis is a bestselling, award-winning suspense author. He works by day as a VP-Hydrogeologist with an environmental firm in Boulder, Colorado, and by night as a spinner of historical and modern suspense yarns. He holds a Master of Science degree in Geology, is a Registered Professional Geologist in eleven states, and is a recognized expert in groundwater contaminant hydrogeology, having served as a hydrogeologic expert witness in several class action litigation cases. He also has a deep and abiding interest in military history and intelligence, specifically related to the Golden Age of Piracy, Plains Indian Wars, World War II, and the current War on Terror. His first two thrillers, The Slush Pile Brigade and Blind Thrust, were both #1 Denver Post bestsellers for fiction, and his first three novels received national book award recognition. The Slush Pile Brigade was an award-winning finalist in the mystery category of the Beverly Hills Book Awards. Blind Thrust was the winner of the Foreword Reviews' Book of the Year (HM) and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and an award-winning finalist of the USA Best Book Awards and Beverly Hills Book Awards (thriller and suspense). His third novel, The Coalition, was the winner of the Beverly Hills Book Awards for a political thriller. Ambassador Marc Grossman, former U.S. Under Secretary of State, proclaimed, "In his novels Blind Thrust and Cluster of Lies, Samuel Marquis vividly combines the excitement of the best modern techno-thrillers, an education in geology, and a clarifying reminder that the choices each of us make have a profound impact on our precious planet." Former Colorado Governor Roy Romer said, "Blind Thrust kept me up until 1 a.m. two nights in a row. I could not put it down. An intriguing mystery that intertwined geology, fracking, and places in Colorado that I know well. Great fun." Kirkus Reviews proclaimed The Coalition an "entertaining thriller" and declared that "Marquis has written a tight plot with genuine suspense." James Patterson compared The Coalition to The Day After Tomorrow, the classic thriller by Allan Folsom. Other book reviewers have compared Book #1 of Marquis's World War Two Trilogy, Bodyguard of Deception, to the spy novels of John le Carre, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, and Alan Furst.
