This is a fast-paced coming-of-age tale that’s as current as today’s headlines. A young man from the city visits today’s small-town America and meets the dark side, from the meth epidemic to the forces of nature. This isn’t Mayberry. Everything he encounters ultimately forces him to face himself and his relationship with his father. Author Jana Meehan weaves together lots of plot strands that take, well, some left turns and right turns, in a lively manner. Her novel keeps you turning pages to find out how this significant summer saga will work itself out. - Larry Gross, humoristSeventeen-year-old Joe MacDonald III is learning about consequences. His misdirected youthful indiscretions have earned him an exile to his grandparents’ farm for the summer. While he is glad to avoid conflicts with his father, the little town of Sylvia, Missouri and people he barely knows are not his idea of a good time.The experience turns out to be far different than he imagines. From his grandfather’s history as a child of the Dust Bowl to his grandmother’s haunting memories of a youth in Nazi Germany, the summer becomes rich in life-changing lessons about how history can reshape people’s thoughts and hearts. Joe begins to absorb his grandparents’ strength, compassion, and sense of responsibility that have been lacking in his own life. Along the way, he reaches out to a pretty young girl who is in trouble at home, and builds an unexpected bond with a young man unlike anyone he has ever met. But, it’s 1992, and the methamphetamine crisis is about to hit northern Missouri just as Joe is beginning to settle into the small town routine. The role chance plays in our lives is realized when the ugliness of the drug culture begins costing lives in Sylvia. Joe begins to hunger for the heroism his grandparents represent, and he gets his chance when madness and evil arrive at his door.
