Traffic — Bill Zahren

Sometimes traffic moves on two legs instead of four wheels. Raising and selling livestock has been a way of life in rural America for generations. Unfortunately, one rural Iowa resident has twisted the tradition into an evil mutation — harvesting young girls to traffic to sex-obsessed buyers around the world. When a teenage girl goes missing, Sioux City Sentinel-Leader reporter Tom Kingman discovers that not everything in rural Woodbury County is as beautiful as the fall colors. The hills are alive with an anatomy-obsessed teenage boy with a rifle, a drunken human trafficker gradually losing his concern for self-preservation, and rage-produced demons trying to provoke Tom into a life-shattering decision.As Tom's significant other, county prosecutor Hillary Reed, helps him make a hard choice, she also faces a decision — one she prays will be for the greater good.