**In this explosive debut thriller, a judge from the Louisiana bayou goes up against a company on the verge of causing a worldwide ecological disaster.**Cajun-born Jock Boucher has overcome modest beginnings to assume the prestigious position of U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. In one of his first cases on the bench, he encounters a scientist who has been hiding in mortal fear for more than twenty years. The fugitive claims that another judge accepted bribes to help a powerful global energy company steal his intellectual property: a revolutionary discovery that could end America’s dependence on foreign oil. Risking his career and his life, Boucher follows a trail of cryptic clues to the bottom of the ocean and soon finds himself the target of killers—and too far from the law to ever return.**Packed with suspense, science, politics, and murder, David Lyons’s fast-paced debut thriller—the first in an exciting new series—pits “one of the most agreeably easygoing heroes on this side of the Atlantic” (*Kirkus Reviews*) against a ruthless company on the verge of causing ecological disaster.****Features an excerpt from the next gripping Jock Boucher thriller!**words : 78588