Little River

James L'Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his award winning novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, facility captain, and director of California's state parole system. He is a nationally recognized expert witness on prison and jail operations. He has been twice nominated for the Silver Falchion for Best Procedural Mystery, and Best Thriller. L'Etoile's Black Label garnered the Silver Falchion Award for Best Book at Killer Nashville in 2022. His published novels include Black Label, Dead Drop, and the Detective Penley series.

It was supposed to be a college fling on an exotic Caribbean island, the kind of trip thousands of tourists take every year and leave with little more than a sunburn and a hangover as a souvenir. This time, the vacation takes a dark and deadly turn. When two girls disappear from a Jamaican resort, local officials and police are more concerned about the impact of a scandal on the tourist trade than in searching for them. It happens all too often in the Caribbean, where fun and sun hide the sinister secret of human trafficking. Grant Turner and Andrea Carson are two single parents thrown together in a hellish nightmare when their daughters disappear without a trace. With nothing to lean upon but one another, Grant and Andrea struggle to find anyone with information about the girls. Their sudden arrival on the island puts them in the sights of a sadistic crime boss, Jon-Pierre Baptiste and his criminal trafficking network. The island's resorts and nightclubs are Baptiste's hunting ground. He prowls, kidnaps and sells women to the highest bidder. If one becomes troublesome, her remains end up in a crocodile infested section of Little River. The madman toys with Grant and Andrea, threatening to add the girls to the dead pool in Little River. Grant and Andrea face their worst fears while navigating through a web of corruption and violence. They have no choice but to play along with Baptiste. It's their only chance to see the girls again. What would you do if your daughter disappeared? Is there anything that you wouldn't do to save your child?