Adam Chase is passionate and misunderstood, a fighter. When narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, he disappears for five long years: not a clue, not a trace. Now, he’s back and nobody knows why—not his family or the cops, not the women he left behind. But Adam has his reasons.

When more bodies surface, Adam must unravel a web of deceit and violence so dense it staggers the imagination. Old secrets rise, lives collapse, and more than one person crosses the brink as author Hart probes the timeless, destructive power of deception and vengeance.

Praise

“Down River should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“If you value Harper Lee, James Lee Burke, Truman Capote, and Michael Malone…it’s time to add John Hart to your bookshelves.”—New York Sun

“Evocative.”—Boston Globe

“Riveting. Down River will sweep you away.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“The thrills come fast and furious.”—The Washington Post

“Truly splendid.”—Booklist (Starred Review)

“Nail-biting suspense.”—Raleigh News and Observer

About the Author(s)

John Hart

John Hart was born and raised in North Carolina. He earned degrees in French, accounting, and law, but always aspired to write novels. After careers in law and asset management, John now writes full-time. He still makes his home in North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. Visit him on the Web at www.johnhartfiction.com.

photo: Abigail Seymour Photography

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Excerpt

Chapter One

The river is my earliest memory. The front porch of my father’s house looks down on it from a low knoll, and I have pictures, faded yellow, of my first days on that porch. I slept in my mother’s arms as she rocked there, played in the dust while my father fished, and I know the feel of that river even now: the slow churn of red clay, the back eddies undercut banks, the secrets it whispered to the hard, pink granite of Rowan County.

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