Poisoned Waters

POISONED WATERS
A Legal Thriller

When Ellie Winters returns to her hometown of Meridian, Tennessee to take a prestigious position at the law firm of Preston, Holbrook & Dean, she’s focused on advancing her career while caring for her ailing mother. But her first case—defending chemical giant ChemPro Industries against environmental claims from a poor community called Clearwater Heights—puts her on a collision course with her own family’s past.

Twenty years earlier, Ellie’s father Jack died after meticulously documenting water contamination he believed was causing illness throughout the region, including his own. His investigation was dismissed as paranoia by local authorities, and the evidence mysteriously disappeared after his suspicious “accident” at a construction site.

As Ellie digs deeper into the case, she discovers a sophisticated system of corruption: a federal judge who receives every ChemPro case through manipulated assignments, critical evidence that vanishes from court records, and witnesses who face career-ending consequences for speaking out. Most disturbingly, she finds her father’s water samples and research hidden in a safety deposit box—evidence that could topple ChemPro and expose decades of deliberate contamination.

Partnering with environmental journalist River Santiago and a coalition of unlikely allies, Ellie faces an impossible choice: continue defending the corporation poisoning her community or risk everything—her career, her reputation, and possibly her life—to finish the investigation her father started.

Poisoned Waters is a gripping legal thriller about corporate power, environmental justice, and the courage to challenge a system designed to protect the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. In the tradition of John Grisham and Scott Turow, this meticulously researched novel explores how even the most entrenched corruption can be exposed when determined individuals refuse to be silenced.