Geologist turned private investigator, Cortlandt Scott, doesn't do body guarding. He likes to investigate oilfield crime and oil business scams. But when Mercedes Drexler, Denver's richest woman, calls to make him the proverbial "offer he can't refuse", to become part of her company in return for protection, he is forced to listen.Cort hasn't worked in the business for years and the opportunity to learn about and actually participate in the latest technologies proves to be seductive. Those latest technologies are in the controversial practices of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing..."fracking" to the general populace.Cort didn't expect to be drawn into a complex and dangerous venture that would take him from a hospital emergency room to a fracking operation in North Dakota to the boardrooms of Houston. He didn't expect to be beaten, threatened and shot at. And most of all, he didn't expect to involve his lover, CSI operative Lindsey Collins, and his best friends, homicide investigators Tom Montgomery and George Ivins, in an air and land chase from Denver to Dallas.The list of suspicious characters and bad actors in Cort's latest case range from environmental activists to street thugs to oilfield rivals to international terrorists. During the course of the investigation, Cort's and Lindsey's relationship is tested to the limits and, as in previous cases, his working arrangements with Tom and George become strained.FRACKED TO DEATH deals with issues found in today's headlines: fracking, oil production, big money, greed and corruption, and international terrorism. It will take Cort to the limits of his abilities to protect Mercy as well as himself.
