My author Nancy West is making noises about the novel she wrote, RISKY PURSUIT, featuring some 18-year-old kid instead of me! I was her favorite protagonist. She’d written only two books, a biography and a suspense novel, before I popped into her head and became the star. I stayed in her head for four books! She even started a spinoff series, Aggie Mundeen Lake Mystery #2, featuring me, with a lead-in novella, The Plunge. It shows how Sam and I survived a catastrophe that totally altered our lives.  (https://nancygwest.com/books/the-plunge/ The second lake mystery is one-quarter written. Why didn’t she continue writing it?

Instead, she lost the plot,  and starting musing about some upstart juvenile. Actually, Decker Savage is almost 19, a new adult. By age 18, I was dealing with serious problems, but that’s history. We need not go into it.

What can Decker possibly know? He’s just an ordinary American kid – there’s nothing special about him. He loves to play baseball, even made varsity as a junior, but that’s not so rare. He does have problems: his baby brother died at age three. Decker was seven, and still misses him. He has a secret about what happened that day he’s never told anybody.

His mom and dad have their own views of what happened to their baby boy. They keep secrets, too. Plus, they are about to divorce.  Unfortunately, that’s not unusual. But for Decker, family is everything.

How can he hold the rest of his family together? It’s going to be doubly hard considering what he got himself into. I admit the kid has integrity, and he acted to protect his family. But he still broke the law. Some maniac took after him, writing anonymous notes threatening him, his family, and his friend if he didn’t do what the creep said. Decker has never been the confrontational type. His grades and relationships go south, and he’s clueless about what to do.

If he does what the mystery man says, he and his family will be ruined. His dream for a college baseball scholarship will be kaput. If he doesn’t do what the man says, the culprit promises to fracture what’s left of his family, bankrupt his parents, and attack the elderly man who survived his first attack. The creep already managed to endanger Decker without being seen, and Decker expects the attacks to get worse.

Can he dredge up enough courage to find this evil man and confront him? Can he save himself and the people he loves?

The book deals with loss, grief, divorce, resourcefulness, courage, and maturity unrelated to age. So I guess there’s something to it. I’ll have to wait and see. Then maybe Nancy can get back on track. She must miss me.

Disgruntled and impatient,

Aggie