The Other Side of Blue Grass

Book excerpt: The Other Side of Blue Grass is a racy thriller, a page-turner that incorporates the popular ingredients that attract contemporary readers. It is an adult novel with a plot line of many contemporary themes; the right to possess and bear arms, protection of individual rights, legal ethics, and an inter-racial romance. The protagonists and villains are believable. A main ingredient in the novel is a well-structured courtroom drama, worthy of John Grisham that connects and brings substance to the underlying theme of crime and punishment. A component of the mystery is provided by a mysterious illness that kills a group of lawyers attending an ABA meeting in a small Kentucky town. This episode, an integral part of the climax, is resolved in a Patricia Cornwell style and with the Internet. The story is given credibility through well-developed, realistic dialogue and movement of the story line through realistic scenes--the landscape and countryside of Kentucky. The novel succeeds in building a connection between the characters and the reader by developing individual characters personalities and motivations. Each character is alive at their first appearance. Readers will not be able to put down this novel due to their intense need to know what happens next. The story has an excellent climax and close that is believable and complete. This book will attract a broad readership from young to older adults.