Zion's Web: a Zachariah Burton Detective Thriller

Brenda Cooper is an escapee from a polygamist compound known as Zion’s Mount (or ZM for short) located in the high desert area of Southern California. ZM is run by The Church of the Redeemed, an organization that has ties to a violent group of so-called fundamentalist Mormons who operated out of San Diego during the early 1970s. As the third wife of one of the cult’s leaders, Brenda’s disappearance is taken more seriously than most, and the church will stop at nothing to get her back—including murder. After evading capture by enforcers from the compound, Brenda seeks help from Zachariah (Zack) Burton, an ex-FBI-agent-turned-private-investigator living on a 50-foot cabin cruiser in San Pedro, California. What follows is a series of ill-timed adventures that leads the two from Mexico to Southern Nevada in search of a lost family gold mine. Brenda hopes to use ore from this mine to entice Zack to rescue her fourteen-year old daughter from the compound before she can be married off to a man thirty-five years her senior. As Brenda and Zack attempt to execute their plan, they encounter a criminal organization that is far more sinister than the cult members who are pursuing them. Soon after, they learn that Brenda’s freedom is not the only thing at stake—but also her life…and virtually everything else she holds dear.