Suspicion
Dennis Yowney, David Yowney
(Yowney Fine Art Ink, Jan. 1, 2013)
For ages 13 and up.While researching the pioneers in Amber County, Miss Sahara Washington, a thirteen-year-old waitress at the Wooden Witch Cafe, probes the smoldering and sinister truth about the quiet hamlet of Harrowton.Everyone thinks that Sahara will never amount to anything. They say, “Just look at her. Her hands are too big. She looks too young for her age and the Washington’s, who own the cafe, aren’t regular people to the area. In fact, Sahara is nothing at all like the local girls who have well established and important parents in the community.”They don’t think she will ever be good enough for any of the outstanding teenagers of the county and she shouldn’t even try. They certainly will not introduce her to any of the right boys; instead, they keep her away from the best boy in the land Jim-Jim Harbinger. They insist that Sahara doesn’t count as a girl friend for such a well-known boy of the county.Jim-Jim works as a mechanic for the prominent and eminent Mr. Papa Joe Cobber. Since the prosperous Nitro Motors Garage is across the street from the cafe, Jim-Jim and Sahara walk to school together. She feels comfortable around him, but she isn’t in love. In fact, Sahara hasn’t decided if she likes Amber County or wants to move back with her parents in the city. She has a lot on her mind.Suddenly, the king of the county, Papa Joe Cobber, is found murdered and the young mechanic Jim-Jim is the main suspect. The town believes him crazy and dangerous and sent him out of Harrowton to work with the ex-slave Skeleton Jack and the witch Baba Yaga. The whole town is suspicious of Jim-Jim; Sahara becomes suspicious of Jim-Jim and wants to believe he is innocent, not violent or crazy. Besides she doesn’t like the idea of the town picking on anyone.As she sets out to do research for the class project on the town’s pioneers, she investigates Papa Joe’s murder and secretly hopes to uncover the mysterious facts of the orphan Jim-Jim.Defiantly, Sahara sets out to establish whether Jim-Jim is good boyfriend material or not. But can Sahara’s heart withstand the bewitching magnetism concealed in Jim-Jim’s eyes?