Book Description

A modern tale in the tradition of the noir fiction classics of James M. Cain and Elmore Leonard, Deadly Instinct tells the story of two couples who are brought together by a fundamental human instinct - the desire for children - but instead find themselves embroiled in a dangerous scheme fueled by greed and avarice. Billy and Barbara Evans seem like an ordinary couple, but looks are deceiving where Billy is concerned. An early-30s man who has never truly grown up, he dreams of riches and position; Barbara, his high school sweetheart, simply wants a family and is blind to Billy's dark side, though she is aware of his close ties to the shady and rich Jacko Denby. Prominent and respectable on the outside, Denby is reputed to have organized crime ties that pay for his opulent lifestyle, one that Billy craves for himself and Barbara. Sarah and Jacob Glass live in the nearby West Virginia coal mining country, but are worlds apart from the Evans in education and social position. Both are salt of the earth people, honest and hardworking, and desperate to have the child they cannot conceive. In their early 40s, they are now eager to adopt, but Jacob's teenage criminal past and their precarious finances have made it impossible. The story moves at an exhilarating pace when Ethan Boggs, a disgraced lawyer, enters their lives. Boggs, who is adroit at arranging hasty and superficially legal adoptions for aspiring parents who are willing to pay, wrestles with his own demons of gambling and alcohol. His instincts for self-destruction put him under the thumb of a local loan shark and render him constantly in need of cash. Billy's semi-legitimate business schemes with Denby bring him tastes of the wealth he craves. Desperate to have it all, he concocts an unholy plan that will give him the financial success he desires, but at a price he cannot imagine. A shrewd detective and a glamorous television reporter begin to sniff out the truth, leading to a fateful confrontation with a shattering climax. Deadly Instinct weaves a complex web of deceit, blood and passion in an unforgettable tale of the most basic human instincts - and their explosive consequences.