The Mayfly Boys: Summer of '63 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781917667098)

A nostalgic coming-of-age story set in the small river town of Mayfly, Missouri in the early 1960s, woven into a compelling mystery played out along the Mississippi River and the steep bluffs overlooking it. Enter the world of the Mayfly Boys-echoes of Mark Twain a century later.

In the summer of 1963, twelve-year-old Jamie Fletcher, hungering for fame, conceives an ambitious plan to become the greatest basketball player in Mayfly's history. Raised in a strict Catholic family, young Jamie struggles to overcome numerous roadblocks thrown up by his parents, the nuns, and his arrogant pastor.

Jamie struggles mightily to avoid eternal damnation due to certain "impure thoughts," mortal sins capable of sending him to hell at any moment "with one unlucky lightning strike." As he struggles with his adolescent yearnings, he regularly confesses his sins to his pastor, whom Jamie hates, particularly because of his dogmatic insistence that dogs can't go to Heaven.

Following a tragedy, Jamie decides with the help of his friends, his brothers, and his faithful dog, Prince, to investigate their pastor. The boys uncover dangerous secrets, balancing a risky investigation with daily chores, while working simultaneously on basketball, their prayer lives and their cursing expertise.

An enjoyable and satisfying immersion into life in the early 1960s, showcasing the marvels of a Catholic grade school, saving Pagan Babies, help from colorful locals, the terrors of river pirates and graveyards, the thrill of athletic excellence, the value of parenting, the yearning of young love, and the grace of manners as they were practiced not so very long ago.

Humorously layered with a tongue-in-cheek examination of moral, theological and doctrinal issues of interest to all American Catholics and persons of faith.