At 18, Sheryle worked in a massage parlor on the outskirts of Wichita, Kansas. At 20, she traveled the Midwest and graduated to a job as a stripper shortly before marrying into the notorious Martin family. While working a family-owned placer goldmine in Montana, her husband, Jake, found a nugget the size of his fist!

But with mining debts of more than $40,000, the family high-tailed it out of Montana to engage in a more profitable endeavor. Sheryle helped build a multi-million-dollar company called Shaperite Concepts. During the company’s most vulnerable beginnings, the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated her father-in-law, Carl, for fraud. During the investigation, Carl’s partner turned up dead. A prime suspect, Carl ended up behind bars—but not for murder! Instead, the SEC found him guilty of stock and securities trading violations. Soon after his release from prison, he was kidnapped by a disgruntled investor and held for a $3.5 million ransom. An unexpected turn of events led to Carl’s escape while the kidnappers were apprehended.

Based on a true story, The Devil in the Deal portrays how a toxic mix of Mafia, money, murder, and scandal were just what Sheryle needed to make sense of an upside-down childhood. Her dubious introduction to adulthood comprised the threads so necessary to sew a patchwork of strength in the midst of one of the most scandalous white-collar crime sprees in America.