The Smell Test

The Smell Test is an adult Mystery/Thriller. The setting is in the fictional town of Hazel, in Culver County, Indiana. Twenty Million dollars has disappeared from a car crash taking the life of driver Steve Brody. Brody has been a life-long friend and errand boy for his boss Mike Dugan, the creator of a new designer drug and mastermind behind an up-and-coming drug empire. When Mike learns that the money he entrusted with his buddy has vanished, he becomes enraged.
Ken Mathis, a rural delivery mailman, stumbles upon a duffle bag in a ditch while delivering letters. He brings the bag home, and with his spouse they open the sack and find one hundred dollar bills stuffed inside. An attempt is made to find the owner of the fortune realizing they cannot keep the money without a sincere effort to locate the owner. Ken comes to the conclusion that the bills might be tainted. Armed with this belief, he steadfastly objects to the return of the cash to someone that has obtained it unlawfully.
Mary Elizabeth Mitchell, Mike Dugan's Enforcer, is hired to find the missing money and do whatever it takes to return the bag to its owner. She rents an apartment in Hazel. Surveillance of every type is used to develop leads that will trace the missing cash, but the catch proves to be elusive.
Undeterred by the lack of success while facing one dead end after another, she is inspired to search the city trash collection facility where the empty duffle bag that held the cash is located. Through a process of elimination she ascertains that the mailman has the currency and burglarizes his home to look for the bag.
The story is a struggle between a couple that is trying to provide a solid foundation to nurture a family, and the evil and greed from the abundance of money obtained freely and dishonestly at the expense of others.
This book illustrates a dream that every person has had at least once, finding a bag of money that would solve all their problems. Life is not that