SEIZIN

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park provides the setting where a young mother of two children hikes along an infrequently used trail, intending to join friends for a weekend backpacking trip, but never arrives for the rendevous. The few available clues suggest a brutal slaying at the hands of a twisted killer. Despite a massive effort by the police, the murder remained unsolved and faded from public interest. Sixteen years later, Carole Wolfe, daughter of the missing woman, as a reporter for a Knoxville paper, finds herself covering a story which draws attention to a tract of land in the vicinity of he mother's disappearance. This property, blanketed by virgin forests, is a compelling lure to young and aging lovers, to filled and empty nesters, and to murderers and thieves. Adjacent to the Smoky Mountains and owned by an elderly couple, it is coveted by a New York computer magnate who wants it for his new headquarters. When they refuse to sell, he conspires with local politicos to steal it, legally. Initially, Carole's sympathies favored the condemnation of the property because of the jobs and money it would pump into the local economy. She views it in the same light as government taking land for roads and schools. But as she soon discovers, her perspective changes bit by bit after meeting an intriguing professor of political science at a reception, hosted in honor of Alex Berlineman, the New York industrialist. The professor, Jake Whaley, reminds Carole of Harrison Ford in one of the Indiana Jones movies. Standing in the shadows, but eager to resume his twisted mission is a serial killer, whose prominent position as a politician's aide puts him on a collision course with Carole. The elderly couple, Waller and Lydia Montgomery, must fight off not only the desires of Alex Berlineman, but also a group of eco-terrorists, who kidnap their only grandson, Drew. Jake Whaley, a friend of the Montgomerys and a staunch defender of property rights finds himself in the middle of rescue, danger and romance. Will he rescue Drew, defeat the eco-terrorists, and save Carole from the clutches of a serial killer?