The Whistle Stop (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781984122667)

It's 1959, and Dale Wickenhoffer moves to the isolated, rural town of Alberta, Mississippi. Dale may be more worldly than those in his new surroundings, but his parents have instilled Bible Belt values of honesty and trustworthiness in him. He quickly falls in with an informal gang of country boys-Lef, Nub, Squeaky, and Armstead-who band together to make mischief on the outside world. In the tradition of Mark Twain's classic tale Huckleberry Finn, this novel reveals humor, surprise, and heartache as it traces Dale's coming of age.

As idyllic as the setting may be, real danger lurks in the outer rings of this band of brothers. Shadrack Brady, the hero of the gang, has a mysterious past that may have placed him on the wrong side of the law. Without realizing it, the boys are involved in a plot that attracts the attention of the FBI. Dale is forced to choose between friendship and the values his family taught him. As the world outside is rocked by the social upheavals of the 1960s, Dale learns the lessons of right and wrong and makes the difficult passage from innocence to accountability.