THE BETRAYERS

Hunt puts action-prone bounty hunter Evan Maitland (Maitland Under Siege, 2006, etc.) on hold while the St. Louis PD scrambles to solve the murder of two county deputies.

What looks like a routine traffic stop ends with Deputies Chris Hummel and Wade Childers shot to death. Lt. George Hastings, of St. Louis Homicide, might think the shooting was unpremeditated or drug-induced if a machine gun hadn’t been the weapon. But the evidence suggests that two victims were lured into a trap, most likely on the orders of Steve Treats, a drug kingpin doing 18 to 20 in Marion, or John Zanatelli, a racketeer awaiting trial. The investigation is hampered by Hastings’s distrust of both his supervisor, Capt. Karen Brady, and interloping punk Sgt. Bobby Cain, the son of a well-connected lawyer. Nor do the bad guys like each other any better. Jimmy Rizza, the driver the deputies pulled over, is sending his brother Sean against freelance assassin Jack Regan; Mike Dillon, the machine-gunner, has already executed his own driver in his determination to cover his tracks; and more murders will follow apace. The search for Dillon, who’s hiding out from cops and criminals alike, will reveal deep fault lines in both communities—fractures Hunt traces as deftly as George Pelecanos.

Densely woven, economical and utterly assured. Relative newcomer Hunt plots like a veteran of urban warfare.