Forests Of The Night

In the tradition of James Dickeyâs Deliverance and Charles Frazierâs Cold Mountain, bestselling author and award-winning poet James W. Hall has written a literary novel that is also an intricate, suspenseful mysteryâa story blending the macabre and the historic, the genteel and the aberrant, the violent and the heroic. With his signature mix of brooding atmosphere and compelling action, Hall takes readers deep into Americaâs own Heart of Darkness.

Policewoman Charlotte Monroe has cop instincts. Scratch that. There isnât a name for the gift she has, something that borders on psychic, an ability to read peopleâs faces and body language like the morning headlinesâto size up their intentions and act before they do.

Itâs a real ability that the FBI is trying to teach to its agents. The bureau is spending millions so theyâll know the difference between a slightly raised eyebrow and a faint twitch of the lip. But Charlotteâs a natural with god-given abilities, and the Feds want her in the worst way, maybe even to the point of blackmail.

Still, Charlotteâs gift fails to prepare her for the stranger who shows up on her doorstep with a chilling warning for her husband, a mysterious note scrawled in Cherokee hieroglyphics and a promise of things to come: âYouâre Next.â

The warning becomes more ominous as Charlotte and her husband, Parker, discover the complex truth about this man, including his position on the FBI Most Wanted list and his connection to their family.

When Charlotteâs deeply troubled teenage daughter runs away to join the charismatic outlaw, she follows the two of them into the spectral mists of the Great Smoky Mountainsâand to the beating heart of a 150-year-old blood feud that will endanger everything she loves and challenge everything she believes.