Steve Merge

Swell Pool Steve Merge

Swell Pool takes place in a rural county in South Carolina. The sheriff's department faces the shocking revelation that a local fishing spot is being used as a dumping ground for dead bodies. Even more horrifying, the people have been killed in a very specific, ritualistic manner. The first chapter opens with a fisherman out on the swell pool late at night. Through his fatal experience, the secrets of what's down below are revealed. His wife's search for him introduces the main protagonist, Lieutenant Lou Showers of the Moore County Sheriff's Department. When the killers target Lou's own daughter, he's confronted with facing the group as a peace officer or as a father seeking revenge. The media calls the murders occult killings. But one reporter sees the opportunistic value of sensationalizing what's happened, by creating the fear among local residents that the marauding group is river pirates, preying upon those who venture down to the water. As it turns out, she's not that far off, but for reasons she never would have expected, because in a strange twist, the predators become the prey.