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The Hunters #3
Black Water Murder
Hidden away in the backwater swamps of southern Georgia a criminal enterprise is spreading its tentacles, leaving blood, bodies and pain in its path. An alliance with a Caribbean cartel gives the southern mobsters the international reach they require for expansion and export of their terrible merchandise. Nothing will stand in their path, except The Hunters.
Teamed together as part of the governor's Office of Special Investigations,George Mackey, Sharon Price and Andy Barnes go undercover to break up the crime syndicate. Supported by pilot Johnny Rincefield and rookie sheriff, Jake Beery, the hunt takes them to the black water of the Okefenokee Swamp and a deadly confrontation with an unlikely suspect.
Teamed together as part of the governor's Office of Special Investigations,George Mackey, Sharon Price and Andy Barnes go undercover to break up the crime syndicate. Supported by pilot Johnny Rincefield and rookie sheriff, Jake Beery, the hunt takes them to the black water of the Okefenokee Swamp and a deadly confrontation with an unlikely suspect.
391 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2013
373 people are currently reading
250 people want to read
About the author
Glenn Trust
51 books257 followersThe lightning waits for us. When it calls we will go.
Pick up your Free copy of Lightning in the Clouds. Just click or follow this URL https://dl.bookfunnel.com/7046vhk5f9
With that out of the way, let's begin.
This is the blah, blah, blah section. You know the author’s “glory page” where he gets to tell you grandiose things about himself and the deeper meaning of his work. Whatever.
I write books. Seriously, that's what I get to do every day. It's great.
I have been fortunate to author some that have achieved bestseller status, including The Hunters Series of mystery suspense thrillers. It took me a lot of years to get to that point, but I wouldn't trade any of them for a minute. I love writing books for you and the journey that brought me here.
I am a native of the south, Georgia specifically. I spent much of my life there, but I have lived in many other places as well. We moved a lot when I was young. Eventually, we ended up back in Georgia in my teens where I finished school and went to work.
I wanted to write from an early age. A really long time ago, when I was still a young police officer in Georgia, I was writing short stories in my spare time and sending them off to magazines. One day I received one back in the mail.
Life Happened
Attached to it was a nice handwritten letter from an editor (this was long before the days of email and texts). The story manuscript was folded and smudged, and there were coffee cup rings on the edges of a couple of pages, which told me they had actually read it, maybe discussed it around an editorial table, or just used it to sop up the coffee.
In her letter, the editor said a lot of things that I don't remember, but it was not the usual form letter that I was accustomed to receiving. It was original and personal.
She said they liked my story, had strongly considered it for publication, but that it wasn't quite believable. Disappointed as I was, I was struck by her last words to me..."Don't stop writing. You're good at this. We almost bought this one."
I remember staring at that a long time. Then I folded it up and tucked it in a file and...stopped writing.
I wish I could tell you a different story, but I can't. I stopped writing for many years.
There were lots of reasons. Yes, I was disappointed, but the letter that should have encouraged me not to give up was forgotten.
Life happened. Dreams of writing were pushed aside by other things...important things.
Mostly I needed money for my young family. In the 1970s, police officers in Georgia were not paid a lot even by the standards of the day. I worked part-time jobs whenever I wasn't working at the police department. Many weeks I had no days off at all.
I'm not unhappy that I did my best to take care of my family. It was the right thing to do and working for them was the joy of my life.
Children grew up; then grandchildren came along. More life happened.
Then...The Internet Appeared
Out of the blue, this thing called the internet appeared and guess what. I was at a point in life when I didn't need to work part-time jobs every spare minute of the day. I could write again.
It's different these days. I can publish a book whether I convince an agent or editor to read it or not. I am an independent writer/publisher, an “Indie.”
It’s a partnership between us, writer and reader, and it's a marvelous thing.
Don't be a Follower -- Make Your Dream Real
It took many years to get here. Life is like that, with lots of twists and turns and surprises. I like it that way.
Now, I write every day, so here's my parting advice.
Don’t follow your dreams. Followers get nowhere except up the backside of the person in front.
Work and make your dream a reality.
Pick up your Free copy of Lightning in the Clouds. Just click or follow this URL https://dl.bookfunnel.com/7046vhk5f9
With that out of the way, let's begin.
This is the blah, blah, blah section. You know the author’s “glory page” where he gets to tell you grandiose things about himself and the deeper meaning of his work. Whatever.
I write books. Seriously, that's what I get to do every day. It's great.
I have been fortunate to author some that have achieved bestseller status, including The Hunters Series of mystery suspense thrillers. It took me a lot of years to get to that point, but I wouldn't trade any of them for a minute. I love writing books for you and the journey that brought me here.
I am a native of the south, Georgia specifically. I spent much of my life there, but I have lived in many other places as well. We moved a lot when I was young. Eventually, we ended up back in Georgia in my teens where I finished school and went to work.
I wanted to write from an early age. A really long time ago, when I was still a young police officer in Georgia, I was writing short stories in my spare time and sending them off to magazines. One day I received one back in the mail.
Life Happened
Attached to it was a nice handwritten letter from an editor (this was long before the days of email and texts). The story manuscript was folded and smudged, and there were coffee cup rings on the edges of a couple of pages, which told me they had actually read it, maybe discussed it around an editorial table, or just used it to sop up the coffee.
In her letter, the editor said a lot of things that I don't remember, but it was not the usual form letter that I was accustomed to receiving. It was original and personal.
She said they liked my story, had strongly considered it for publication, but that it wasn't quite believable. Disappointed as I was, I was struck by her last words to me..."Don't stop writing. You're good at this. We almost bought this one."
I remember staring at that a long time. Then I folded it up and tucked it in a file and...stopped writing.
I wish I could tell you a different story, but I can't. I stopped writing for many years.
There were lots of reasons. Yes, I was disappointed, but the letter that should have encouraged me not to give up was forgotten.
Life happened. Dreams of writing were pushed aside by other things...important things.
Mostly I needed money for my young family. In the 1970s, police officers in Georgia were not paid a lot even by the standards of the day. I worked part-time jobs whenever I wasn't working at the police department. Many weeks I had no days off at all.
I'm not unhappy that I did my best to take care of my family. It was the right thing to do and working for them was the joy of my life.
Children grew up; then grandchildren came along. More life happened.
Then...The Internet Appeared
Out of the blue, this thing called the internet appeared and guess what. I was at a point in life when I didn't need to work part-time jobs every spare minute of the day. I could write again.
It's different these days. I can publish a book whether I convince an agent or editor to read it or not. I am an independent writer/publisher, an “Indie.”
It’s a partnership between us, writer and reader, and it's a marvelous thing.
Don't be a Follower -- Make Your Dream Real
It took many years to get here. Life is like that, with lots of twists and turns and surprises. I like it that way.
Now, I write every day, so here's my parting advice.
Don’t follow your dreams. Followers get nowhere except up the backside of the person in front.
Work and make your dream a reality.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 25, 2016
Book 3, in “The Hunter” series
In “Criminal Enterprise” George Mackey and his team (nicknamed the “Hunters”) are on the hunt tracking a series of missing persons which leads them to a human trafficking ring with connections to underworld figures in the Caribbean.
The story moves at speedy pace and builds in intensity pages after pages as we follow the Hunters trying to locate the victims before they are sold into sexual slavery. It never stops in fact I found it to be exhausting trying to keep up with all the different threads and the numerous players. We jump from criminal activities in the swamps of southern Georgia to their alliance with a Caribbean cartel to the Hunters and the victims. The narrative switches back and forth between the players many times I needed to take a pause in order get my bearings and place everyone. Be ready to read lots of descriptive violence and killings but again the subject brings this short of action. I found the plot to be rather convoluted and difficult to follow at times. There is nothing mushy about this story, hard and to the point. The recurring characters have evolved since their first appearance: they are well- defined and quite believable. Although the story did not managed to hold fully my interest and captivate me as the two previous installments did I admit nevertheless this story is written with passion to leave an imprint in our minds: How far would evil people go for the mighty buck.
At the end of the book Mr. Trust give statistics regarding human trafficking activities around the world. Astonishing……
In “Criminal Enterprise” George Mackey and his team (nicknamed the “Hunters”) are on the hunt tracking a series of missing persons which leads them to a human trafficking ring with connections to underworld figures in the Caribbean.
The story moves at speedy pace and builds in intensity pages after pages as we follow the Hunters trying to locate the victims before they are sold into sexual slavery. It never stops in fact I found it to be exhausting trying to keep up with all the different threads and the numerous players. We jump from criminal activities in the swamps of southern Georgia to their alliance with a Caribbean cartel to the Hunters and the victims. The narrative switches back and forth between the players many times I needed to take a pause in order get my bearings and place everyone. Be ready to read lots of descriptive violence and killings but again the subject brings this short of action. I found the plot to be rather convoluted and difficult to follow at times. There is nothing mushy about this story, hard and to the point. The recurring characters have evolved since their first appearance: they are well- defined and quite believable. Although the story did not managed to hold fully my interest and captivate me as the two previous installments did I admit nevertheless this story is written with passion to leave an imprint in our minds: How far would evil people go for the mighty buck.
At the end of the book Mr. Trust give statistics regarding human trafficking activities around the world. Astonishing……
December 23, 2024
Reading a Glenn Trust is like opening a newspaper because of the reality of the story. This one deals with the dark world of human trafficking and sex slaves. The characters are fascinating and the plot keeps the reader entertained and mesmerized. This is a great suspense story told by an amazing story teller. I love the feel of the locations in the book and the authors wonderful writing style.
January 12, 2015
Glenn Trust has written the best thriller series I've read in a very long time. His third book outdoes itself and only makes me want to read all of his books.
Anyone interested in good thrillers-- this is the series for you!
Anyone interested in good thrillers-- this is the series for you!
September 17, 2015
Great thriller. The plot deals with human trafficking (specifically kidnapping and selling of young women) and the dedication of others to stop it.
January 12, 2016
loved the book. thought it was well written and addressed the subject of human trafficking well. Again the characters were well defined and believable. enjoyed the twists and turns as always.
July 1, 2018
There are plenty of police procedurals out there featuring a group of police or other detectives working together to solve the same case, but most of them feature cops in the same unit, or at least the same department or agency. Glenn Trust has done something rather unique in his series, The Hunters, by structuring a series of novels around a group of top notch, albeit rather unconventional, law enforcement personnel scattered throughout the State of Georgia, who are all working on the same case in their various jurisdictions. It's a remarkable accomplishment for an author to pull this off once, but Trust has done it on three different occasions, featuring three completely different types of crimes. His latest in the series, Criminal Enterprise, is a solid thriller and a worthy successor to the earlier books.
Although the good guys in Criminal Enterprise are all part of a team, there’s no doubt in these Hunters novels that the top cop is seemingly the least significant, a sheriff’s deputy named George Mackey in (fictional) Pickham County, a small county in rural southeast Georgia. Somehow, big crimes keep happening in Pickham County that get Mackey involved, and through him, the rest of the team. It’s to author Trust’s credit that he’s been able to keep this series credible despite what in real life would seem to be a ridiculously unlikely happenstance. Having lived in Georgia myself for decades (as has author Trust), I can say that Trust’s descriptions of the small counties feels quite accurate.
The plot in Criminal Enterprise revolves around the efforts of a local good-ole-boy mobster to expand his operations by getting involved in the white slave trade. He sets up shop at a local brothel in a neighboring county, killing the brothel’s former owners, and starts making arrangements with some Latin American businessmen to set up a pipeline that will send kidnapped American women overseas. An acquaintance of one of the kidnapped women contacts the Atlanta police, and Mackey eventually ties the kidnapping in with the operation going on his own backyard.
As in the earlier books in the series, author Trust tells his story in a number of short chapters told from various characters’ points of view, switching effortlessly between the various investigators and the bad guys, whose alliances prove quite temporary and whose double crosses and brutal murders are frequent. Despite the large cast of characters, Trust does a good job of giving the various characters a reasonable degree of depth, although, by now, Mackey and his new girlfriend, GBI agent Sharon Price, are the most familiar, and they are at the stage where they wonder just how serious their feelings are for each other. Trust does a good job of describing emotions here without getting mushy.
Still, the author’s strength is his plotting, and he does a very good job of describing a complex criminal scheme and the police work involved in tracking it down. Criminal Enterprise also includes a healthy dose of state and local politics as well, with the Governor of Georgia butting heads with his Attorney General about the new task force he’s formed, of which Mackey and friends are members. And, at a local level, the sleazy former sheriff of Pickham County is plotting with the bad guys to get his job back. All told, it’s a fast paced story with plenty of suspense, culminating with a showdown in the backwoods swamp between Mackey and one of the meanest of the villains.
Criminal Enterprise does falter a bit in its description of modern day white slavery. For some reason, the characters in the book react as if they were completely unaware of its existence, and while it’s possible some lay people are unaware, having one law enforcement official after another react with complete surprise when they learn about the criminal activity stretches credibility. The author uses this ignorance to show off the results of his own research into the topic, but it’s a crude device.
Still, for the most part, Criminal Enterprise is an effective thriller, with a cast of likable protagonists and a fast moving, suspenseful plot. Further, the author leaves some plot hooks for the next book in the series that should intrigue readers. Suspense fans will want to spend some time hunting down in Pickham County.
Although the good guys in Criminal Enterprise are all part of a team, there’s no doubt in these Hunters novels that the top cop is seemingly the least significant, a sheriff’s deputy named George Mackey in (fictional) Pickham County, a small county in rural southeast Georgia. Somehow, big crimes keep happening in Pickham County that get Mackey involved, and through him, the rest of the team. It’s to author Trust’s credit that he’s been able to keep this series credible despite what in real life would seem to be a ridiculously unlikely happenstance. Having lived in Georgia myself for decades (as has author Trust), I can say that Trust’s descriptions of the small counties feels quite accurate.
The plot in Criminal Enterprise revolves around the efforts of a local good-ole-boy mobster to expand his operations by getting involved in the white slave trade. He sets up shop at a local brothel in a neighboring county, killing the brothel’s former owners, and starts making arrangements with some Latin American businessmen to set up a pipeline that will send kidnapped American women overseas. An acquaintance of one of the kidnapped women contacts the Atlanta police, and Mackey eventually ties the kidnapping in with the operation going on his own backyard.
As in the earlier books in the series, author Trust tells his story in a number of short chapters told from various characters’ points of view, switching effortlessly between the various investigators and the bad guys, whose alliances prove quite temporary and whose double crosses and brutal murders are frequent. Despite the large cast of characters, Trust does a good job of giving the various characters a reasonable degree of depth, although, by now, Mackey and his new girlfriend, GBI agent Sharon Price, are the most familiar, and they are at the stage where they wonder just how serious their feelings are for each other. Trust does a good job of describing emotions here without getting mushy.
Still, the author’s strength is his plotting, and he does a very good job of describing a complex criminal scheme and the police work involved in tracking it down. Criminal Enterprise also includes a healthy dose of state and local politics as well, with the Governor of Georgia butting heads with his Attorney General about the new task force he’s formed, of which Mackey and friends are members. And, at a local level, the sleazy former sheriff of Pickham County is plotting with the bad guys to get his job back. All told, it’s a fast paced story with plenty of suspense, culminating with a showdown in the backwoods swamp between Mackey and one of the meanest of the villains.
Criminal Enterprise does falter a bit in its description of modern day white slavery. For some reason, the characters in the book react as if they were completely unaware of its existence, and while it’s possible some lay people are unaware, having one law enforcement official after another react with complete surprise when they learn about the criminal activity stretches credibility. The author uses this ignorance to show off the results of his own research into the topic, but it’s a crude device.
Still, for the most part, Criminal Enterprise is an effective thriller, with a cast of likable protagonists and a fast moving, suspenseful plot. Further, the author leaves some plot hooks for the next book in the series that should intrigue readers. Suspense fans will want to spend some time hunting down in Pickham County.
September 30, 2021
This was quite a hard read both in terms of the plot and the subject matter. It was good to see some of the same characters from previous books but there were a lot of other new characters, so much so that it was hard to remember who they were and where they fitted in. It was a shame the loose ends weren’t all tied up at the end but I guess that means they’ll carry over to next time or perhaps that’s how these things do really end up in the real world. I’ll try the next in the series and hopefully find it a bit easier.
July 7, 2025
I found this book unimpressive. There was nothing special about it. Seemed like just another generic crime story. I did not like the author's use of first names of characters at times, and last names of the same characters at times. It made the book hard to follow. The character development was minimal and I did not connect to any character and didn't really care about any of them. The epilogue was 10% of the books length. Really? The story was over and I didn't care what happened afterwards. All in all not a fun book to read for me.
April 11, 2025
Excellent and enthralling story
The GA governor opened up a new investigation group of top agents in their field. Sharon can can see pieces of a puzzle in different investigation files and make the start of a case out of it. Follow along as politics from a disgruntled former sheriff and the state attorney general( who lost the last election to become governor)try to derail everything.
The GA governor opened up a new investigation group of top agents in their field. Sharon can can see pieces of a puzzle in different investigation files and make the start of a case out of it. Follow along as politics from a disgruntled former sheriff and the state attorney general( who lost the last election to become governor)try to derail everything.
October 26, 2021
Georgia has a new group of investigators hand picked to take on crimes that cannot be solved through other law enforcement agencies . First they go after a cabal between crews from Trinidad and a Georgia crew consisting of known criminals combined with crooked law enforcement officers. They are kidnapping and selling young women! You won’t want to put it down!
January 31, 2019
The new taskforce, OSI, set up by the Georgia governor has its first case. A case concerning human trafficking. But who is involved and how can the group track them down.
Another very enjoyable read in this well-written series
Another very enjoyable read in this well-written series
June 9, 2020
A really good story. I want to say Glenn Trust bad guys are exceptionally good nasty. In fact they make the story what It is l. All the characters are well written, the bad guys are just more interesting
February 24, 2019
Good book
You people should just read this novel yourselves and write your own review on this novel yourselves and I really enjoyed reading this novel very much so. Shelley Ma
You people should just read this novel yourselves and write your own review on this novel yourselves and I really enjoyed reading this novel very much so. Shelley Ma
April 8, 2022
The hunters
I devour the books. Riveted to my seat. Have read three already, and looking forward to the rest. Keeps your attention throughout the books. Very well written.
I devour the books. Riveted to my seat. Have read three already, and looking forward to the rest. Keeps your attention throughout the books. Very well written.
December 16, 2024
Really good story. Great characters and dialogue.
June 4, 2025
as good as it gets
This is a keeper. Keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first page. Hard to pot down once you start
This is a keeper. Keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first page. Hard to pot down once you start
September 4, 2025
Magnificent Distriibution
Enjoyed the way the story was told
Details and design are unique
Reading that kept going
Story was real
Thanks
Enjoyed the way the story was told
Details and design are unique
Reading that kept going
Story was real
Thanks
October 2, 2025
good read
December 19, 2025
amazing story
This book kept me so interested and drew me into the story. I’ve read many Hunters Books and loved every one.
This book kept me so interested and drew me into the story. I’ve read many Hunters Books and loved every one.
February 20, 2024
Locations/Settings: [Georgia: Okefenokee Swamp, Atlanta, Pickham County (fictional), Meacham County, Nick’s Cove (fictional), Everett, Roydon (fictional), Valdosta, Deerton (fictional), Fitzgerald; Florida: Jacksonville, Clearwater Beach, Tampa; Trinidad, Dominican Republic]
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews