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by Bruce Kirkpatrick (Author)
Running his own high tech PR and ad agency in San Francisco provides Johnny Roe most of the passion and love in his life. But when his wife and two kids are killed in an auto accident, Johnny loses his drive for business--and life. An odd encounter with his sister-in-law at the funeral predicts even more trouble.
Needing to escape his grief, he loads his son's dog Buster in his Jeep and heads east, aimlessly looking for release. Johnny randomly stops in Booneville, Iowa, where he meets Doc Enbright, a retired medical doctor concerned with the secretive reason the town's main employer seems to be sabotaging its own business.
Gradually Johnny's drawn into the dilemma of U.S. Johnson Controls, a manufacturer of high tech robotics, whose business is failing despite cutting edge technology.
On a bicycle ride in the country, Johnny is mysteriously run off the road and winds up in the local hospital under the care of Emmy Brownell, a 31 year-old nurse, whose life has taken a lonely turn. Her parents have moved away and she recently broke off her engagement. Now she finds herself using her artistic talent only to paint portraits of women in despair.
Can Johnny purge the darkness of grief and despair and find a new business identity? Can a budding romance with Emmy survive his anger and reluctance to start to love again? Or will the failing robotics company, surrounded by dishonesty and deceit, destroy everything in its path?
