Richard Logan was 14 that summer, and things were pretty much the same as always in his little Pennsylvania town. His parents were caring but stubbornly corrective, his grown relatives and neighbors coarse, hard-working and mysterious, his love-life non-existent. He was full of adolescent yearning and small-town ennui.

Then, so quickly, nothing was the same. There was a naked woman – new in town – running out of the woods with ornery Lyle Thompson close behind her, scared out of a tryst by Richard's careless shot at a woodchuck. Later, there was another naked woman, dumped near a stream like an unwanted dog, found by Richard and some new friends, including the fetching but prickly daughter of the first naked woman.

Now there was a riddle to solve, and women and girls to protect. Lyle Thompson was in it up to his neck, which put him and Richard on a collision course from the moment of that first encounter.

Rusty Barnes doesn't waste any of the potential of this setup. He builds tension all the way through as Richard fights his own youthful timidity, deciding ultimately to do the right thing, to go to battle, to make the dangerous leap from kid to hombre.

A wonderful sense of place, great characters, a satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended.
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