The Happy Valley

<p><strong>In this heavily immersive (Kirkus) kaleidoscopic voyage through the past present and future of the United States a young girl uncovers a secret society a middle-aged man searches for his lost first love a group of teens invent a role-playing game protests threaten to topple the government and an eccentric lawyer and his young Vietnamese prot��g��e re-open a dormant case. </strong></p><p><strong><em>A knotty philosophical mystery dense with lingering regrets.<span>������������ </span></em>-<em>Kirkus</em></strong></p><p>In the early 1990s in Harmony Valley a rural Upstate New York village faded from its 18th and 19th century heyday a group of teens engaged in an idiosyncratic role-playing game cross paths with June a mysterious girl whose family has deep roots in the area and Clyde Duane a janitor who makes weekly visits to a strange room-the headquarters of a<strong> </strong>secret society-opening its door with a golden serpent-headed key. Meanwhile an eccentric Utica lawyer pulls his young Vietnamese prot��g��e into their firm's special case which stretches back to the 1840s. </p><p>Decades later in 2034 as the United States is breaking apart and a new way of life taking shape June has disappeared. The mystery of her disappearance inspires a journey back to The Happy Valley and a reevaluation of the past that exposes the dark personal and societal secrets betraying our founding myths.</p><p><em>This atmospheric mystery at turns gothic poetic cerebral and funny ranges from rural New York to the outer reaches of the Zebulon Galaxy; from the 1700s to the 4th decade of the 21st century. </em></p><p>The novel is 414 pages with 66 full-page b&w illustrations by the author that recall the excitability of middle-grade stories (Kirkus) and includes an <em>Appendix</em> with a <em>Timeline</em> and a detailed <em>Reading Group Guide.</em></p>