BOOKS

FACES IN THE MORNING FOG – JIM TRUCK

On the first morning of 1951, four strangers tumble into a frozen foxhole, seeking shelter from the horde of Chinese forces rampaging down the Korean peninsula. One will commit a heinous crime, and the others will join him in a devil’s compact that will bind them together for the rest of their lives.

Two remained in the Army and found themselves entangled in the web of intrigue, deception, and the ever-shifting loyalties of Cold War Germany. Later, they were drawn into the corruption and treachery of Vietnam. Often, they had to navigate the amorphous line between good and evil, succumbing to temptation and taking some of the purloined contraband for themselves.

Surviving life-threatening wounds, the remaining two pursue civilian careers. One, a wartime medic, becomes a doctor to the Hollywood elite. The other marries into a banking family and conceives a financial empire that will enrich them beyond anything they could have imagined when growing up in the desperate years of the Great Depression.

At ninety-six, the last of them, driven by an unyielding determination to atone for his many sins, decides to put their story into a book. “Let the chips fall where they will,” he tells his worried daughter, his voice filled with a mix of regret and resolve.

It will be up to her to somehow placate the father she adores and shelter him, their family, and those of his deceased comrades from his folly.

This tale is about loyalty at any cost, revenge, the raw pain of love tragically lost, the renewal of hope when a new one is found, and the guilt of surviving when so many have fallen. It is a parable on the burden we are fated to carry from the sins we commit along our brief journey aboard this great blue orb we call Earth.

BLOOD STAINS ON OLD LEATHER – JIM TRUCK

Seventeen-year-old Sarah Roberts is smart, quirky, spoiled, and—stubborn. When she notices her great aunt’s forgotten dusty old trunk in the hazy glow of an attic window of her palatial home, her curiosity overrides her father’s warnings that it is “off-limits” and “There will be consequences. . .”

As soon as she raises the lid, Sarah knows she has made a mistake, but having destroyed the locks, she sorts through the contents anyway. Inside, she finds blood-stained leather journals with German writing, along with other keepsakes, including a tattered tote bag wrapped around a heavy pistol and a clip of ammunition. In an ambered plastic case is a photograph of a German soldier and World War II-era medals, including an Iron Cross.

The first journal entry was made on April 28, 1945. Sarah could interpret enough to discern that she and her namesake shared the same birth month and date and that she was also seventeen when she made the entry.

After Sarah enlists the aid of a German exchange student to help with the translation, he stuns her with the revelation that her relative was a Jewish escapee from a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

When she finally approaches her mother to confess her misdeed, Sarah learns that her parents’ marriage is falling apart, and they must flee the wrath of her abusive father. That is when Sarah’s real journey of discovery begins. This is a multi-generational, coming-of-age tale about the things that stir the sleeping passions of the heart and push back the curtains of time to reveal the hidden secrets that distinguish the fundamental elements of what makes up a family.

The Seduction of the Dove – Origins – JIM TRUCK

Paloma Montalvo was just sixteen when Paul Turner rescued her from the clutches of a rapist. Once he had seen her safely home, he drove away, which should have been the end of it, but their brief encounter would profoundly impact them for the rest of their days.

Paloma is the American-born daughter of illegal immigrants. Paul is the only child of sharecroppers who work a hundred-and-sixty-acre plot of hardscrabble high prairie. Both share one essential goal-to escape the small rural town they were born in as soon as they were able.

Paul chose the Army, Special Forces training, and the perils of Vietnam, where he would discover a hidden talent that would alter his future in ways he could never have imagined.

Alluring and intelligent, Paloma becomes entangled in a torrid affair with a handsome new, young teacher, Justin Roberts. A jealous girlfriend will expose their affair and send Justin to flee prosecution. Had it not been for the fateful rescue of a classmate from a burning automobile, Paloma would have been stuck in Tabersville. However, the wealthy family of the girl she saves rewards her with a college scholarship that will lead to a medical degree.

Paul’s break comes when a gallery owner recognizes his innate talent and helps him become a much sought-after portrait painter. They will both end up in Chicago, where they encounter Sydney Wilson. The world-savvy daughter of a wealthy banker, she must battle foreign criminal elements trying to undermine and control her family business after her father’s unexpected passing.

Flawed and susceptible to their intrinsic ambitions, these three will ascend to the pinnacles of their professions but at a substantial personal cost.

Compromise, seduction, lost love, misplaced loyalty, and regret for missed opportunities are the essential elements of this saga that spans two generations and three continents.