In the 1950s, a Romeo and Juliet theme lives between the Chanteur and Santos families in the agricultural town of Moxee, Washington. Uncle Emile Chanteur has given his 100 acres of hops in Moxee plus two houses to his Louisiana nephew, Victor Chanteur, his wife, Mignon, and two children, T-Luc and Valentina, plus his sister, Marie Chanteur. Pepe Santos, who is the field manager for Victor Chanteur’s hops, and his family live in a laborer’s cabin a half field from the Chanteur’s big house with Luna, who is a curandera – a Mexican healer. Their children are Domingo and Pilar, who attend Holy Rosary Catholic School with the Chanteur children. The Chanteur and Santos children attend Holy Rosary Catholic School and are the best of friends. They do not regard the cultural boundaries the adults have lived with for generations. Trouble boils when Domingo and Valentina fall in love and Victor Chanteur fires a shotgun at Domingo. Uncle Emile attempts to bring compassion and love to the troubled families as the teen lovers cross blood and cultures. Victor Chanteur alienates his children and his wife with his violent acts but in the finale’, his most unexpected generosity unite the Chanteur and Santos’ families.

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“. . . God always does a better job than me. I say to myself, big trouble coming to Victor; I don’t need to make it worse. When you see that kinda trouble coming, keep your head down, work hard and keep your mouth shut. Trouble pass right by you. Believe what I’m telling you.” Prospero Santos, field manager of the Chanteur Hop farm

In the mid-sixties, a beautiful young woman attended the late Monday night movies at the Capitol Theatre, a vaudeville theatre in Yakima, Washington. A chauffer always met her in the back rows and they exited to a waiting vintage automobile. During the movie, Psycho, she was strangled to death, which manifested her spirit into a ghost known as Therese. She terrified and charmed Rex Marvel, the young projectionist, into finding her murderer but he refused to enter her world of lost souls. In the fury of her scorned anger, she caused the theatre fire of 1975. During a sting, Lt. Paganelli and the theatre crew tricked the killer, a respected community figure, and brought him to justice.

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“Brother, if you ever think of scorning a female ghost, the only advice I can give you it to run for your life!” Ozzie Goldstein, Capitol Theatre’s entertainment manager

Mick O’Hara, an autistic boy, lives with his father and uncle, who are arborists at Wolf Castle Orchard in Yakima, Washington. The owner of the castle is Reggie Kenyon, a wolf biologist in the Cascade Mountain Range. He raised two wolf pups when he was a boy and after they escaped to the mountains, he longs to see them again. The brothers lost money gambling at a mob-owned club but their debts were forgiven in exchange for two favors. Assaults, arson and murder were the result of the mob coercing the owners of the Golden Tiger Chinese Restaurant and Zammy’s Gun and Ammo to sell their businesses to the organized crime family in Tacoma. Lily Song Sung-Blu, a witness to the mob’s arson, was eliminated and became the first favor of burying a body in the orchard. When it came time to deliver the favors, the brothers refused the mob’s demands. Mick was captured until the favors were granted but he surprised the goons and escaped. Mick has the power to see his dead mother, Lily-in-the-baby-pear tree and the wolf pups. Sheba, from “down the road”, appears in the story and teaches Mick that he has psychokinetic powers just like her. In the finale’, the mob attempts to force the brothers to consent to the second favor but their guns and weapons are at the mercy of the Mick and Sheba’s powers.

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So the final deduction in Reggie’s mind was that Mick was not insane. What Mick saw was truly present. And that meant that Mick had seen Reggie’s wolf pups at the creek. He had seen his dead mother smiling at him in the orchard. He had seen murdered Lily floating in the pear tree and she had given him a fortune cookie. Reggie Kenyon’s thoughts: owner of Wolf Castle and wolf biologist

Jake is a sharpshooter. Levi is a forensic scientist. After Jake’s tour as a sniper in Vietnam, the boys hike into the Cascade Mountains. A cougar stalks them and they nearly die from the elements of the mountains.  Only an intervention from their second dad, Ron Porter, their grandfather and a U.S. Army Huey helicopter called Golden Eagle, could the men be saved from their guaranteed peril in the wilds of the Northwestern wilderness.

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“Eli would do the best he could as a single father. The boys were his life now and all that really mattered.”

Jake, Levi, Sergeant Rocky La Roche, Jake’s former Vietnam sergeant, and Sheriff LeBlanc team up in St. Martinville, Louisiana to find the serial killer of two men who were murdered then hung by their ankles in oak trees alongside the bayous.  Marie Mascarade, aka Gator Woman, is a suspect.  The closer the team gets to the truth, the more evil voodoo comes their way.

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“She’s the opposite of a saint? She’s the evil sorcerer?” Jake snorted and said, “Get real! Are you saying we’ve been cursed by that little woman? What is she? Some kinda witch?”   Jake Gunderson

 

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