After his fiancé leaves him on Christmas Eve, DEA Agent T.A. Reddick leaves Miami for Charleston, SC, hoping a return to his southern roots will heal a wounded heart and the guilt of killing a friend.

The sleepy and sultry city of Charleston is filled with echoes of the Old South: genteel playboys, society debutantes, and quiet cobblestone streets.

But as Reddick will soon discover, there’s danger lurking under her charming veneer. When a movie star’s death shines a national spotlight on the port city’s cocaine trade, the man they call The Pretender must risk his life in a massive undercover operation that threatens to expose some of the most powerful players of high-society Charleston.