Trail of Evil

Synopsis:

Tobias Crenshaw, the serial kidnapper/rapist who goes by the name of “The Chemist” is now behind bars. Left in his wake of mayhem are a pair of missing victims. Green Bay homicide investigator, Lt. Cale Van Waring, decides he must do whatever it takes to uncover the whereabouts of the still-missing females. With the aid of a clue from The Chemist (Crenshaw) himself, he sets off on a blind search-and-rescue mission. The spotty trail takes him to Rome, then on to Anzio, Italy… followed by a flight into war-torn Liberia, Africa. Finally he arrives in Belgium, where he nearly dies in a final confrontation with human traffickers.

Trail of Evil is about a relentless detective who refuses to give up the search for innocent victims, even though he is far outside both his jurisdiction and his comfort zone. The theme of the story is that sinister people are at work throughout the world. Quite often their money and connections give them a license to commit their crimes. And as distant as these predators seem (especially when portrayed on crime shows, or in nightly newspaper headlines), sometimes they show up in our own backyards.

Janson background: Janson Mancheski is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. His first book, The Chemist (2008) touched a nerve in readers by depicting crime in the mid-sized city of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In Janson’s own words:

“I attempt to write stories that are suspenseful and based in reality. Things that if they haven’t already happened somewhere, could easily show up in tomorrow’s headlines. Although my characters believe in honesty and family, hope and love, they also understand that there are genuinely bad persons out there, whose primary illness allows them to hurt innocent people in order to achieve their gains.”

“I wrote The Chemist to touch upon crime in the Midwest. To show that evil can exist anywhere. Many people believe that serial kidnappers, human trafficking, and date rapists are mostly big city urban crimes. Often times, however, it’s the small to mid-sized towns and cities where evil truly rears its ugly head. Whether it be biker gangs, meth producers, vengeful boyfriends, or even the lonely man living in a rural farm house… people don’t want to acknowledge that sometimes evil dwells only a few heartbeats away.”

Trail of Evil — the follow-up story to The Chemist — portrays a dogged detective’s unrelenting search for missing victims that he feels responsible for. Lt. Cale Van Waring is the cop we all wish we had working in our corner. He defines the qualities most law enforcement personnel had when they first received their badges. In today’s world of Wall Street greed, dishonest politicians, wealthy perverts, and moral decay seemingly running rampant, I attempted to create a detective who has personal flaws, but still cares about helping innocent people for the greater good.