Defiance Is Different

Growing old is risky. Combine it with poverty and you have a conundrum. In Defiance Is Different, the fourth in the Helen and Frank series, Frank Palermo had lost his money by 2023. He had sent it to aid the defense of Ukraine, along with prodigious sums of money he had defrauded from Russian oligarchs. Helen Palermo was living on a placid lake in Florida, estranged from Frank, whom she feared might get her killed. Barney Browning and Vinnie Palermo continued to make money. They needed to invest it somewhere, so they began buying regional banks in the Midwest. Their success attracted unwanted attention. With Barney's help, Frank returned to his gastronomic roots and opened a small restaurant in Defiance, Missouri. Helen arrived from Florida and helped Frank's restaurant succeed. The Covid-19 pandemic was over, yet people had much to fear--multiple wars, urban crime, a porous southern border, inflation, ubiquitous fentanyl, inept and scary politicians, overreaching bureaucrats, a divided electorate, and a presidential election year. If 2023 was calamitous, imagine what 2024 might bring.