Thickets

Dan Kelly, a banking executive in exile, his personal life in shambles, has been dispatched by his Mississippi-based bank to gain a foothold in Texas, a precursor to eventual expansion throughout the moneyed Lone Star State. He settles in among the labyrinth of towering pines and thick hardwoods in the area referred to by natives as Deep East Texas, a region barely known to exist by those who have never ventured into the area. Surprised and intrigued by the amazing secluded beauty of his new surroundings, and bored by his mostly self-imposed existence, Kelly begins a secret part-time endeavor offering parcels of land to potential buyers beyond state borders, utilizing ads placed in regional newspapers in neighboring states.

One of the properties is purchased by a presumed retired industrialist and his wife from Ohio, who, unbeknownst to Kelly, are serving as a front for a brutal crime syndicate recently forced to abandon its cocaine processing operation in northern Ohio.

Slowly becoming aware of the danger he has wrought upon the citizens of rural San Gabriel County, Texas, Kelly begins a desperate search to undo the damage he has caused, ultimately leading to a life-or-death confrontation. His odyssey leads him to Dallas, Houston, and to Knoxville, Tennessee, before finally meeting his own mortality face-to-face in the now-threatening deep, dark East Texas thickets.