Secrets of Ash

<p><strong>*2024 Georgia Author of the Year nominee.</strong></p><p><strong> *Winner IndieReader Discovery Awards for Literary Fiction 2024</strong></p><p><strong>*A fabulous book. . . These are great characters. -<em>NPR</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><em>Secrets of Ash</em> is a riveting fast-paced and suspenseful novel of fraternal love and dark memories told from the alternating points of view of two brothers who cross a lifetime and a rugged mountain to come to terms with themselves and each other.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>After a checkered boyhood spent under a domineering father in a well-to-do Atlanta neighborhood brothers Chase and Jack Lumpkin take separate paths. Older brother Jack always the obedient one his brother's protector becomes a nationally syndicated sports radio host with all the trappings of success that come to the voice of Atlanta's own Morning Madness with Bachelor Jack.</p><p><br></p><p>Chase always the rebel the troublemaker joins the Army and finds himself in combat in Afghanistan. After sustaining wounds and receiving a Purple Heart he returns to Georgia where he retreats into the thickly forested mountains of Ash County a deeply troubled man suffering from PTSD and a gnawing conscience about a murder committed during the haze of war.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile Bachelor Jack falls victim to his own excesses. When an on-air interview with an NFL coach nearly ends in a brawl he swears off his A-List lifestyle takes a leave of absence and heads to the high country to visit his brother.</p><p><br></p><p>But Chase is not home in his rustic cabin-he's in more trouble than they could ever have imagined.</p>