The New King

Disgraced attorney Ben Hirsch wanted a second chance—a new opportunity may cost him his life When the nineteen-year-old daughter of the Upper Peninsula's wealthiest family vanishes, her parents turn to disbarred attorney Ben Hirsch for help. What begins as a straightforward missing person case on an idyllic Lake Michigan island pulls Hirsch into a dangerous cult led by eccentric mathematics professor Jonathan Teller. Following in the footsteps of the martyred nineteenth-century Mormon prophet James Strang, Teller crowns himself king of Beaver Island and commands his followers to build the kingdom of God. When another young woman connected to the cult turns up dead, desperation and a sense of duty thrust Hirsch deeper into an underworld of drug runners, sex traffickers, and pornographers determined to exploit the cult's most vulnerable followers. As Hirsch uncovers the dark secret haunting Beaver Island's newest king, powerful forces conspire to stop him at any cost. The New King follows Ben Hirsch across the Upper Peninsula, the Desert Southwest, and the Lake Michigan coast as he strives for justice in a world awash with greed, deceit, and brutality. Hirsch finds himself in the crosshairs of his sinister adversaries as he races against the clock to bring the cult to justice and save Beaver Island—and himself—from ruination.