My Backyard Is Murder

Frank and Isabel lived on their one-acre little piece of heaven for years in the company of their three dogs three cats and abundant wildlife. Life beneath the sheltering arms of dozens of 100-foot-tall trees-cedar spruce fir and hemlock-changes when the forest south of their home is razed and the developer deliberately severs the holding roots of five of Frank and Isabel's trees. Those five trees fall in a windstorm crushing their shed shattering the roof of their home and killing their beloved Flat-Coated Retriever Aria. Their little piece of heaven becomes hell. Turning to the authorities for help Frank and Isabel hope against hope that the developer or the law or the agencies of justice will make some effort to make them whole-if that is even possible. It's a vain hope. Ultimately they lose faith that the law and the agencies of justice are willing or able to act morally and ethically.This is the story about what happened next-about a very different and unexpected path to justice than either Frank or Isabel would have preferred. It's a story told alternately by Frank Isabel's husband and Detective Jimmy Brautigan the man attempting to solve three seemingly related murders-murders that wouldn't have happened if the developer or the city planner or the law hadn't been entirely indifferent to Frank and Isabel's tragedy. As Frank tells the reader We didn't take the law into our own hands. No we took justice into our own hands. This is a story about justice restored.