UNKNOWN

When private detective Walter PKK Montgomery wades into the cold waters of the Nolin River for a birthday weekend of trout fishing, he doesn't expect to catch a briefcase containing $150,000 in unmarked bills. In the next 36 hours, Walt, his country-singer girlfriend, Belinda, and his partner, Johnny Horoscope, are pursued up and down Interstate 65 by a psychopathic cop and a crooked Kentucky lawyer, and both of them will kill to reclaim the money.

A former Alabama Highway patrolman, Walt knows that a dirty cop is the worst kind of fiend to have on your tail, and when this knife-obsessed, psychopathic killer takes Walt's girlfriend hostage, Walt must outrun the state police in three states, outwit a crooked Kentucky lawyer, and unravel a twisted plot that ultimately pits him against a perverted judge who has paid to have his own wife kidnapped and killed. To save Belinda and the judge's wife, Walt must confront the memory of his first wife's death. Finally, he must find Belinda and overpower the cop before he subjects her to the most hideous torture and death imaginable. $150,000 is not enough money to die for, but all of these characters are ready to kill for it.

Joe Marshall Hardin crafts a thrilling and action-packed ride as Walt races to save his girlfriend and clear his name. This crime thriller races to a dramatic and gun-blazing conclusion.

Joe Marshall Hardin is professor of English and former dean, and teaches film, writing, and literature. He is author of Opening Spaces: Critical Pedagogy and Resistance Theory in Composition, Choices: Situations for College Writing, and has published on writing, food, and sound. Hardin is also a musician and songwriter.