Jago

by James Ross

15 year-old Dakota Scout comes from a world of fear and famine, a world of sudden storms, of feral dogs, and gangs of murderous 'prowlers' who torture and murder for sport. Our own world is ninety years past, and all that remains of humanity are tiny tribes who survive beyond the ruins of the ghostly city of Jago, living on their wits and their ability to endure the worst that nature and humankind can throw at them. One day, pursued by a gang of prowlers, Dakota flees into the basement of a crumbling building and finds herself in a tiny, sterile room with a small computer whose screen lights up and asks her when she wants to go. She spins a dial and, when she leaves the room, she emerges into present-day San Diego. She has traveled back through time into a world of plenty, a world of lights, a world in which cars move and windows aren't all smashed and in which the people are safe and comfortable. Picked up by the police as a vagrant minor she is fostered by Dr. Jane Smith, and decides she will stay in this safe, protected world. She will go to school, she will make friends of girls her own age, she will forget the life she left behind. But the life she left behind hasn't forgotten her. Prowlers, friends and a murderous boy named Jester are all searching for her, all determined to find her. And the man who designed the machine that took her back through time isn't the only one to discover its secrets. Jago is the first novel in a YA fantasy at times bleak and dark, it is not for the faint-hearted, yet it is filled with honesty and love, and it introduces an exceptional new character in Dakota Scout.

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 27, 2020

About the author

I'm a cancer survivor who had something to say. One story has become several novels from fictitious Prairie Winds Golf Course high atop the Mississippi river bluffs just east of St. Louis.

My stories are character-based with the genre being realistic fiction. My writing style utilizes the use of dialogue from an eclectic cast of characters. Aside from the recurring regulars roughly 20 new personalities are introduced per story.

There will be a Midwestern flavor, solid themes, social issues, and a few lessons in life learned from the golf course which reflect my roots.