On the Horizon

On the front burner, with the gas turned way up, is my recently completed novel The Road Disappeared Behind Us. At 93,000 words, this novel follows Jennifer and Jack Knight as they relocate to small-town Vermont in the aftermath of a horrible incident in Northern Virginia. Reminiscent of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, though with somewhat softer edges and more likeable characters, and RJ Hoffman’s Other People's Children, this novel centers on a couple spinning in desperation following an adoption attempt gone horribly wrong. The story takes readers along with the Knights as they seek to protect themselves while assuming new risks for one more shot at parenthood. Along the way, they get caught up in some small-town politics, adding yet another threat to their plans - and perhaps their freedom. Can they escape past mistakes, stick together despite myriad challenges and pursue their new life and new hope? Will they do whatever it takes?

Complete and edited at a still-lengthy 138,000 words, The Patience of the Just, which I completed in 2022, centers on a heinous, racially motivated crime left unsolved for nearly fifty years. The crime bursts back into public consciousness and sets off a new set of dangers when the adult children of a recently deceased FBI agent discover secret case files in a basement safe. The story is told in alternating chapters through the perspectives of each of those four adult children and young Reyanne Monroe, who has a deep family connection to the brutal crime at the heart of the story. All five characters encounter, accept and create risks, determined to deliver long-awaited justice to the families of the victims. Will the patience of the just finally be rewarded?

Early reviews of both books have been overwhelmingly positive. Now, my mission is to ensure the general reading public soon gets an opportunity to read and judge for themselves.