Dead Water

In the simmering tension of nineteenth-century New Orleans, Benjamin January is drawn into a high-stakes investigation after being hired to track down Oliver Weems, a bank official who has vanished with $100,000 in gold essential to a school for freed slaves founded by January and his wife, Rose. As they pursue Weems aboard the steamboat Silver Moon, the plot thickens with Weems's murder, complicating their search for the stolen treasure amidst a web of deception that includes a menacing slave dealer, a domineering pilot, and an enigmatic lady tied to river pirates. Racing against time and with the assistance of a young planter named Jefferson Davis, January must navigate a perilous world of corruption and betrayal to protect his friends and himself.