Pursuit. Maim. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798288979170)

His preacher father sold him when he was almost ten years old. The buyer was a 16-year-old female who paid for the boy with a month of full-body submission to the father.

Custody was to be delivered on the day of the boy's thirteenth birthday. The itinerant father would use those years to implant into the boy's psyche a morbid fear of killing another person, even accidentally. And make good use of the boy for taking care of the camp. Years of repetitive demonstration of the pain of heat and severe admonishment of the for-sure hell destination of any person who kills another did the job.

The buyer, Maude, had suggested the mental block. She assumed the boy would be upset with her and his father when he found out he had been sold. The block was to prevent him from killing his nemeses.

The boy could not kill. But he could maim.

One day, the boy abruptly got fed up with his perceived mistreatment over the years and did exactly that. He maimed. He shot and destroyed his father's elbows, knees, wrists, and ankles. A bullet did a fine job of destroying a joint. His father would never be able to come after his son. The boy and the camp's only horse disappeared.

That is how the story begins.

Maude did not take kindly to her property disappearing just when she was ready to collect. She had paid dearly for that boy, the worst month of her life, she later declared.

The boy had not known he was sold. But he soon found out.

To escape, he went west. There were times he had human company, but mostly not.

During a personality-forming adventure, the boy's temporary companion commented that his name should be "Maim" because he was so proficient at maiming people. The name appealed. "Maim" was his name from that moment on.

Maim survived, not by killing but by so thoroughly maiming opponents that they were unable to follow up and kill him.

This book talks about the many years that Maim avoided Maude.

(The second book talks about Maude's adventures trying to catch her property. The third book describes the events that lead to the catch.)