About this item
When Father Jake Austin is assigned to his hometown of Oberlin, Ohio, in July of 2002, he has been away for a long time. A physician and a war veteran before entering a Catholic seminary, he is now a member of the Camillian Order. He takes comfort in his vows of obedience, poverty, chastity, and service to the sick. Jake arrives just in time to attend his high school reunion, where an encounter with his high school sweetheart forces him to question his commitment to the priesthood. Before the night is over, one of his classmates will be dead, a second gravely wounded, and a third hospitalized. The carnage at the reunion comes on the heels of what appears to be an unrelated murder at the quarry. Overseeing the investigation is Jake's former football teammate, Chief of Police Tremont "Tree" Macon, who is unwilling to rule out anyone as a suspect, not even Jake. As he struggles to prove his innocence and to find his footing in a town that remembers him as a hellion, Jake searches for threads that will connect these brutal attacks. The war may be long past, but in some ways Jake is still waiting for his DEROS: Date of Expected Return from Overseas. Can he put aside his own demons long enough to find the living, breathing devil who stalks his classmates? Book 1 in the Father Jake Austin Mystery series.
About the Author
I am a physician by training, but a writer by passion. Medicine was my first love, but mysteries and poetry soon became my drugs of choice. DEROS (book 1 in the Father Jake Austin Mystery Series) is set in a small college town where I lived, and at St. Joseph's Hospital, a Catholic facility where I worked. MIRACLES (book 2 in the Father Jake Austin Mystery Series) and ABSOLUTION (book 3 in the Father Jake Austin Mystery Series) are also available in paperback, Kindle, and large-print hard-bound library edition. I now live happily as an ink-stained wretch, and teach a poetry workshop for seniors at a local college. I enjoy swimming, hiking, sunshine, good friends, and red wine. MYSTERIES: Although I've been a lover of mysteries all of my life, my passion for creative writing took root in college. While practicing medicine, my interest never waned. I began honing my craft by attending creative writing workshops and college courses, then furthered my education at The School of Hard Knocks, revising my work after each rejection. When I was awarded a Helen McCloy Scholarship by the Mystery Writers of America for DEROS (the first book in the Father Jake Austin Mystery Series) and best-selling author Laura Lippman chose it "Best Of" at the Writers in Paradise Conference, I pressed on against the odds. After years of writing and revising, Coffeetown Press, the fabulous mystery publisher, began publishing the entire Father Jake Austin mystery series. I am an active member of the International Thriller Writers. POETRY: I first discovered the healing properties of poems as I dealt with my mother's Alzheimer's disease, my father's cancer, the suicide of a family friend, and the struggles and suffering I witnessed in my medical practice. Poetry provides a vehicle that takes me to places that logic won't go. It is a way of understanding the incomprehensible, both in life and in medicine. I now prescribe poetry PRN ("as needed") , but warn that sometimes "it may hurt a little." One of my main characters, Emily, is a blind poet, which allows me to insert a little poetry into each novel. Although my book, "Heart Murmurs: Poems," is a work of fiction, any resemblance to actual events or persons is not entirely coincidental. My poetry is peopled with friends, family, and patients who live in the heartland and in my heart. I have published dozens of poems in literary journals and magazines, and my work has been performed on Public Radio. I've read my poetry at colleges, the Akron Art Museum, the Cleveland Clinic, and the George Bush Presidential Library (where my poem, "The People's Republic," was inducted into the permanent collection in 2002 and displayed next to the Declaration of Independence) . I have received an Artist Enhancement Grant from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council for my writing. Fat
