The Loner - My Novel in Progress
After many years of evacuation of the residents of Centralia, PA, in 2009 Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell ordered the final eviction of the town’s few remaining occupants. Besieged by smoldering underground mine fires, the small, former anthracite mining town was deemed unsafe for human habitation. The air had become toxic, and unpredictable cave-ins swallowed large chunks of property, almost killing a young boy playing in his backyard. Smoke and flames pierced the ground surface during the day in many places and created eerie illumination of the landscape by night. Due to sink holes, the main state highway through the town had been closed and traffic rerouted through a bypass around the town.
The seven remaining die-hard residents successfully sued the state to save their family homes, many of which had been handed down through several generations of those who worked the surrounding coal mines. Today, the closed section of State Route 61 is a mecca for graffiti artists who have painted a mile-long, interactive mural on it’s fissured, macadam surface; it is known as Graffiti Highway.
In my upcoming novel, expected in 2020 (locations are real but all character and stories are fictional), Ned Harper has survived on his own for his entire life amid the desolation of Centralia. In 2019, strange drawings appear on Graffiti Highway near his home. Dreams and premonitions which portend much greater devastation to befall the region that he loves wrack Ned’s sleep. His adopted Irish Setter, Rusty, seems to sense something sinister in those who are meeting under the cloak of night and leaving the symbols on Graffiti Highway.
Ned solicits the help of famed crime investigator Aubrey McKenna, since the graffiti suggests that it may be the work of a crime syndicate known for drugs and human trafficking. Perhaps they are gaining a foothold in the county, and that would be a major crime threat to the region. McKenna and her cohorts never expect what they discover, with Ned’s help, in their investigation of this possible, impending threat. Uncovering a circuitous plot of international proportions, they rush to prevent catastrophic harm which is about to befall the residents of eastern Pennsylvania.
The seven remaining die-hard residents successfully sued the state to save their family homes, many of which had been handed down through several generations of those who worked the surrounding coal mines. Today, the closed section of State Route 61 is a mecca for graffiti artists who have painted a mile-long, interactive mural on it’s fissured, macadam surface; it is known as Graffiti Highway.
In my upcoming novel, expected in 2020 (locations are real but all character and stories are fictional), Ned Harper has survived on his own for his entire life amid the desolation of Centralia. In 2019, strange drawings appear on Graffiti Highway near his home. Dreams and premonitions which portend much greater devastation to befall the region that he loves wrack Ned’s sleep. His adopted Irish Setter, Rusty, seems to sense something sinister in those who are meeting under the cloak of night and leaving the symbols on Graffiti Highway.
Ned solicits the help of famed crime investigator Aubrey McKenna, since the graffiti suggests that it may be the work of a crime syndicate known for drugs and human trafficking. Perhaps they are gaining a foothold in the county, and that would be a major crime threat to the region. McKenna and her cohorts never expect what they discover, with Ned’s help, in their investigation of this possible, impending threat. Uncovering a circuitous plot of international proportions, they rush to prevent catastrophic harm which is about to befall the residents of eastern Pennsylvania.
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