SELECTED WORKSSouthern Drama
THE SUM OF HIS WORTH
It’s 1960. The Civil Rights Movement roars into Alabama—but Alabama, in Klan speak, don’t by God like it. In this incendiary climate an unlikely two people, a white teenager and a liberal dentist, breaks from their indelible culture in a daring attempt to help a black community crushed under Jim Crow laws. “Ash Town” rose from the ashes of a 1929 KKK burning/lynching spree—and three decades later it’s people are still being brutalized, squeezed by bad cops and now insidiously dying from a posion-polluting chemical plant. Segregation, corruption and hate are the driving forces in The Sum of His Worth. Dentist Joe Peach has made many sacrifices--socially, physically and ecomonically--in an effort to better race relations in Woodstock. But his grand sacrifice in this war zone will be to stop a Klan massacre of a busload of Freedom Riders--a indelibly heroic moment in the eyes of his young protege, Sonny Poe. One thing I hope readers will take from this book is a sense of the hate and bigotry that oppressed all Southerners before the push for equality. Also, there's a heartwarming story running on almost pure adrenaline to enjoy in this tragic novel.Adventure/thriller
BABY LOVE
The deaths of six campesinos in the California desert was tragic enough before reporter Ray Myers discovers babies had crossed the border with them, babies now missing. The trail to find them hurls the reporter into the dangerous world of international human trafficking. The smuggling gang becomes crippled in chaos as mastermind Ricky Mendez devises a psychotic plan to snuff everyone related to the smuggling operation, including now a pesky reporter who keeps sniffing in the wrong places. Myers, along with softhearted smuggler Maggie Frazier, find themselves on the run from Mendez’ henchmen while trying to rescue the babies from a ruthless Mexican trafficker who has hijacked the children. It’s a race against time that drives them deep into Baja’s Indian country and through the seamy back streets of Ensenada.War Drama
YEAR OF THE MONKEY
A wartime drama of friendship and betrayal. Set in Vietnam during the decisive Tet offensive, the story takes us on a perilous Heart of Darkness journey through a war we only thought we knew. The CIA has ordered Specialist Russell Payne to befriend and rat on Corporal Daryll Willingham as part of a secret operation that, no matter how sinister, cannot boost or sustain an unpopular war. The two troops are forced into an unwitting odyssey through hell -- and into a court-martial for murder. Originally published by Simon and Schuster, 382 ppThriller
FROM THE SHADOWS
Now comes vengeance for a childhood of unspeakable evil. The time is the early 1990s and our victim/perpetrator, Janice Parrish, does not remember shooting her father at pointblank range. At age 26 Janice cannot keep friends. She's frigid, she's rebellious, she drinks too much.An up-and-coming real estate agent, she's losing clients. Finally Janice committes a crime for which she can either go to jail or in to counseling. It's with the counselor, pop psych analyst Patricia Zeck, that her nightmare begins. Zech determines she has all the "signs" of having been sexually abused in early childhood. But why couldn't Janice remember? San Diego crime reporter Ray Myers has more than a gut feeling this story will do him in. But it will be Myers alone who must find the truth--before more murders take place. |
THE SUM OF HIS WORTH
...Change electrifies a Klan-run and Klan-feared Alabama town at the violent outset of the Civil Rights Movement BABY LOVE
....Baby smuggling brews mayhem on both sides of the border in this fast-paced adventure triller YEAR OF THE MONKEY
...epic wartime drama of friendship and betrayal FROM THE SHADOWS
...a mystery of sexual abuse and recovered memory 
illustration by V.D. Smith
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