When two men are killed inside of Dallas/Fort Worth airport - an off-duty FBI agent and his assailant - it triggers an investigation that uncovers one of the largest and most complex serial murder cases ever. FBI Special Agent Jessica 'JJ' Jansen, an experienced but troubled agent with a history of personal and job performance issues, is assigned to lead the investigation since it initially appears to be a simple and straightforward case, and in her boss' eyes, a case that even she couldn't screw up. As she starts digging into the 'why' surrounding the events at the airport, she uncovers more about the assailant (Jamarcus Hicks) that precipitated this whole encounter. She discovers that Hicks was flying home from Washington, DC, after murdering a man in Georgetown the night before. Feeling that there's more to the story than this one homicide, JJ is forced to enlist the help of a local investigative reporter (Kristyn Reynolds) to delve deeper into the mystery since her superiors are not even remotely convinced of her concerns.
JJ and Kristyn uncover information tying Hicks to 20 murders over the past several years. Even more shocking, continued investigation uncovers the fact that Hicks was not a lone wolf: he, along with three friends from college, are responsible for committing more than 80 murders as part of an online multiplayer game that they created ('The Murder Game'). The criteria for each challenge, including target cities, victim 'persona', and type of weapon, is dictated by a computer program leveraging Artificial Intelligence to 'learn' and continually make the game more interesting and challenging. Fans of The Murder Game place bets on the outcome via the Dark Web portal and can earn substantial prize money if they bet on the Slayer amassing the most points for their execution.
As they close-in on the group of killers, JJ and Kristyn find themselves being targeted by the very people they're investigating and scrambling for their lives. As the case comes to an end, they find that the old adage that 'no good deed goes unpunished' definitely rings true.
Hudson, Sonny: - I've spent my entire career in the technology industry, and while that may seem like it's a million miles away from writing fiction, it was actually a job that I had back in ancient times (a.k.a, the 90's) that sparked my interest. At the time I was working for a Fortune 10 company providing pre-sales technical support to our (thousands) of sales people around the globe, and one of my team's responsibilities was producing a bi-monthly newsletter. This was not the typical little 2-3 page newsletter: each issue was between 36-56 pages. Writing and co-editing articles for this newsletter quickly became my favorite part of the job, and everything else quickly started to feel like an interruption of my writing. Each issue was distributed to approximately 3,000 people, and it was consistently recognized and awarded for its excellence.Once the writing bug was unleashed, I wanted to write a full-length novel and finally accomplished that goal in 2008 when I wrote and published 'Let the Truth Be Told', a political-action thriller that readers compared to David Baldacci, Robert Ludlum, Brad Thor, and Tom Clancy. I was very happy with the reviews and resultant sales, not to mention the learning opportunities as I made my first foray into the book world.I currently reside in Williamsburg, VA and I'm a member of James River Writers (Richmond, VA) and actively participate in their workshops and learning activities to improve my writing and industry knowledge. I continue to pursue my writing and am passionate about creating more stories and characters, and I'm currently working on the outlines for two new manuscripts. My current release, 'The Murder Game', is the first in a series of 3 or more crime/police/detective mysteries that should appeal to fans of David Baldacci, James Patterson, Lincoln Child, J.D. Robb, and others. Book #2 in the series, 'Glitz. Glamour. Murder.' is scheduled for release in Summer 2023. Stay tuned!
