The Deadly Hatch

"Cavanaugh's fly rod was no match for the assassin's rifle. Risk taking a bullet or be swept over Big Basalt Falls? He had only seconds to decide." From outdoor adventure writer Michael Hamilton, comes his debut mystery novel set on both sides of the Cascade Crest. The Deadly Hatch weaves a story of remorse, revenge and redemption with a little time left over to fly fish. After two decades of staring into the eyes of dead perps, stepping over shell casings near riddled bodies and smelling the decomp of mutilated corpses, investigative reporter, Miles Cavanaugh, is wrung out. Burned down to a short fuse, with the barrel of a deadline constantly pointed at his temple, marginal pay and long hours, he flees the canyons of Manhattan returning to his tangled roots in the Pacific Northwest. His imagined homecoming is anything but. The wolf pack is on the prowl. Cavanaugh and Cascade County Sheriff Clayton Tweedy are the prey. Third generation rancher Wade Barksdale leads the pack of far right militia. Blinded by grief, Barksdale blames Tweedy and Cavanaugh for the death of his only son shot down in a drug bust gone awry. Barksdale is running for governor. He vows to split the state in two and create a new homeland for patriots. To bribe his cabal of corrupt legislators, judges and county commissioners, Barksdale strikes a faustian bargain with the Queen, leader of the El Jaguar cartel. The new killer fentanyl is cutting a deep, ugly gash through hamlets, bergs and big cities, bleeding an epidemic of crime and sorrow. To Cavanaugh, the suffering, tragedies and overdose deaths, are like an emergence of swarming insects covering the riverscape in a deadly hatch. Dirty money, deadly drugs and despotic corruption, there'll be the devil to pay before it's finished.