Books and banter by W.H.Manke

It’s that time of year when it is not unusual for bear, deer and even cougars to show up occasionally in the backyard.  We love it when the bear come and just play, when the deer come to graze but stay out of the garden, and when a cougar just quickly passes through.  We saw three black bear cubs recently having fun climbing a small tree. First their mom tried to shake them out of the tree, but eventually she just let them play until  they had enough and climbed down on their own.  The deer lately have behaved too sticking to the grass out back.  Thankfully, we had no recent visit from big cats.  The cubs’ mother also just slipped out of the thick underbrush for a few seconds.  Usually they come into that patch of grass and stay awhile.  Maybe since I had the lawn mover out there a few days earlier she was a bit hesitant to stay any longer.

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I added my last post four months ago,  Since that time have I been hiding?  My aim was to spent many hours at my keyboard proofreading, editing and formatting one of my novels for eBook readers.  Last weekend I reached my goal yo my great satisfaction.  A couple days ago this novel, “Beyond the Breaking Point” could be found in the Smashwords’ store.  As of today Kobo readers can find it there, and soon Barns and Noble and most other eBook retailers will handle it as well.

Beyond the Breaking Point

 It appeared that Montgomery Moserly had everything a young man could wish for – good looks, talent, a close family, a girlfriend, a job he loved and notable financial prospects.  But by chance he became the only witness to a targeted shooting that left the victim dead.  He took every precaution not to be detected by the two killers by hiding in his car.  He also had the good fortune to have a camera in his Mustang and took photos of the shooters, their vehicle and the license number before he reported the incident to the police.  His statements to the police, he thought, would be the end of his involvement in this brutal event, but a crooked cop trying to keep the killers and their gang from being discovered wanted no witnesses.  He passed Monty’s name on to the gangsters and kept them informed of his daily routines.

The killers and their boss launched an intense hunt for Montgomery with one goal in mind – to speedily silence him.  It quickly became apparent to Monty that he would not be safe at home, on the road or any place he could think of to hide.  He had wronged no one but his safe, promising world had crashed suddenly.  The killers hunted for him relentlessly.  Often their attempts to find and silence him seemed secured, and he saw no way open to escape.

His ordeal also affected his family who daily feared for his life.  The girl with whom he had been close for several years felt it best to move on to avoid any danger to her own life.  Through the unsolicited assistance of strangers and a young woman fighting her own battles with whom he worked Monty managed to avoid becoming a statistic a number of times.  On some occasions he saw no way left open for him to escape.  All hope seemed futile.  Even praying appeared to be too late.

The more often he slipped through the killers’ traps the more intensely they hunted him.  The daily attacks on his life eventually took him beyond the breaking point.  In this state of mind he became convinced the only way out of the dangers he faced was for him to hunt his hunters.  In desperation he set out to track down the individual who gave the orders to kill him thinking that by eliminating him he would regain his freedom and the bright future his years of study and hard work had promised him.

That he fell in love with the woman who came to his rescue a number of times complicated matters still more for him.  He could not dare to involve her and expose her to the danger he faced.  He knew all would be lost unless his plans to expose the gang were successful.  But he faced professional killers and his chances to succeed appeared close to zero.  He had not only witnessed a murder, but he also had too much evidence of the Assistant Captain’s involvement with the gangsters trying to silence him for his own plans to be successful.

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