The Cloven Pine

For every action, there is a reaction.

For every murder, there is a murderer.

For every implant, there is a custodian.

Idaho, 1964. When the eccentric father of 10-year-old Conrad shows him an implant aliens once put in his leg, Conrad steals it and runs away from home. Enlisting help from his Indian friend Tomahawk Joe, Conrad makes for a haunted cave in the forest. His dramatic adventures there mark the end of his childhood, as the military police, the local sheriff and a cloaked, masked figure get increasingly tangled with Conrad's weird, wonderful family. When Conrad is 13, events take a stranger and darker twist, and Conrad is forced to turn detective, even while the sinister forces that play in the towns and countryside around him become more potent, and the people he thought he could trust are the ones he must beware. Conrad, the mixed-race son of a lovable crazy and a wise woman from the South, grows up fast in a country gripped by fear of the Russians and of alien invasion. This is a novel to be enjoyed by teens, and savoured by adults who appreciate a multi-level adventure story with dashes of fantasy, sci-fi and murder.