Those That Did Not Die

by Penny Fletcher

Soldiers never come back the same as they left. War changes them in ways that are hard to measure, and those changes ripple through their lives, touching everyone around them. Drake was once a soldier. When he returned from the Gulf War, be brought with him a darkness that he could not escape. He drank too much, his temper flared without warning, and sometimes that rage would be unleashed on his wife, Candace, and even his son, while their daughter cowered behind a closet door. The real casualties of war weren’t just on the battlefield; they were in the living rooms and kitchens of families who bore the brunt long after the war ended.

Desperate to protect her children, Candace makes a courageous decision to escape. Hidden away in a remote location in Florida she finds a job as a hotel manager. As long as Drake can’t find them, they would be safe. But Drake's rage knows no bounds, and once he finds them... it sets off a chain of events that puts Candace at a crossroads. As he closes in, Candace faces a heart-wrenching can she protect her family from the monster that now hunts for them, or is there no choice but to consider the unthinkable? As the threat looms ever closer, Candace must confront the ultimate question—can she find a way to keep her family safe, or is Drake’s death the only path to their salvation? As she grapples with this horrific possibility, she is forced to weigh the impossible choices that lie before her.

394 pages, Paperback

Published December 20, 2024

About the author

An author, print journalist, and editor for almost 40 years, Penny Fletcher uses her true-life experiences to write both fiction and nonfiction centered around today's world problems and news. She enjoys writing suspense-thrillers the most. Her latest, THOSE THAT DID NOT DIE, (Pub. Dec. 2024) is the result of more than 30 years of working with victims of domestic abuse; as a journalist, and as a peer counselor who relates through a horrific experience of her own.

She's written more than 12,000 news stories, features, and editorials and earned more than 20 press awards from The Florida Press Association and Community Papers of Florida. As a reporter and Bureau Editor during several takeovers, she has experienced many of the changes she writes about in Dirty News, The Sumerian Secret, and Soft News. After leaving the newsroom, she made an in-depth study of the Supreme Court, Congressional, and FCC rulings that have led to the disinformation, commentary and biased reports passed off as news over the last 25-or-so years.

Three of her publishers have gone out of business leaving several books out of print. They include, If I Should Die Before I Wake, American Gestapo, and Where the Wild Rose Grows. When she has time, she intends to reprint these herself, as she believes self publishing is now the best way to go.

While working full-time as a journalist for Sunbelt Newspapers and simultaneously as a columnist for The Tampa Tribune, she also occasionally wrote for three national magazines: Gulf Coast Fisherman, Today’s Christian Woman, and True Story. Meanwhile, online, she freelanced as an editor for Amazon’s first publishing venture, BookSurge, where she learned to edit in British English. She still operates an editorial service on her website where she has edited more than 300 books . Until 2023, she also gave once-a-week classes in creative fiction writing at The Center 4 Lifelong Learning in the retirement community of Sun City Center, Florida. When available, she still edits authors' work online.

Currently press-credentialed by the Florida Freelance Writers/Writers & Editors Network, she can be found on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn as well as her website.

Reviews

[Dennis Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

THOSE THAT DID NOT DIE by PENNY FLETCHER is, in my opinion, a slow burn with deep insight. This is not a beach read, nor is it a comedy. There are good people everywhere, often where you'd least expect them. Rene, along with her two children, and Bubba, aka Jimmy, are transients living in the woods near the Woodland Motel. Candace, a mother of two (Paige and Tyler) is the manager for the motel. She is a very busy gal with a lot of responsibilities. But she still finds time to care for those living at the "hobo" camp.

Sadly, where there is good, there is also evil. THOSE THAT WOULD NOT DIE delves deeply into the psyche of Drake, Candace's ex husband, a war-torn psycho who came back from the Gulf War consumed with misplaced hatred for almost everything, mainly Candace and even his son, Tyler. Thankfully, he never harms Paige but the violence she witnesses toward her mother, along with the trauma of a serious auto accident does some serious damage to her fragile body and mind.

PENNY FLETCHER is an amazing writer touching on deep subjects, domestic abuse, PTSD, rape, homelessness, alcoholism, the tragedies of war and more. The book also has a solid positive side: the values of hard work, dependability, love and friendship, caring for others and so much more.

Throughout the book, the reader will find short segments, black pages with white writing, the thoughts and feelings of a soldier during wartime, a very interesting concept. Honestly, they were hard for me to read but I don't think you will have a problem with it. Keep writing Penny. I take my hat off to you.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is brilliant. The author really knows how to weave a fantastic story. And weave she does. There are 2 disparate storylines in this novel. I really like the clever way she created the “dark” pages to represent the soldiers story. The narrative is smart and the exposition is well-crafted. I was invested in every character she created. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was shocking at times. The sex scenes were surprising to me, but beautifully written. I finished this book with complete satisfaction with the ending. This book exceeded my expectations in so many ways.