J. J. White

 

According to Dr. Darold A. Treffert of the University of Wisconsin, there are fewer than one hundred reported cases of prodigious savants in the world. Those few who possess the savant syndrome all have an island of brilliance that allows them to excel in some remarkable talent. Unfortunately, they all share various developmental disabilities.

Imagine going to sleep one night as a normal person of average intelligence and waking the next day in possession of several genius level abilities. In 1962 Vermont, seventeen-year-old Gavin survives a horrendous explosion, six hours of brain surgery, and thirty days in a coma, to awake possessing not just one savant talent, but several, including art, music, mathematics, and memory, and all without suffering any of the usual mental disabilities associated with head trauma.

His newly acquired abilities thrust him into the public eye as the amazing ‘Whiz Kid’ from Burlington; a moniker he detests. At first excited by his new celebrity, he eventually drifts into deep depression, burdened by a domineering father, his paranoia that someone’s trying to kill him, and his increasing tendency for violence. 

His genius, paranoia, and increased hallucinations result in some strange and extraordinary encounters with the icons of the 60s, including Bobby Fischer, Nikita Khrushchev, Edward R. Murrow, John Chancellor and even a tragic meeting with John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Gavin’s odds look slim that he will survive not only his external trials, but also his inner conflict keeping him from the one thing he desires most, the girl he’s loved since childhood.

 EARNED INHERITANCE

 To an outside observer, Senator Robert Wilson led a charmed life. He built his own construction business at seventeen, married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Saunders, who bore him his loving daughter Annie, and was a millionaire several times over. He never lost an election; ranging from school board member to United States Senator. But if they dug deeper into the man’s psyche, they would find a man beset by tragedy his entire life.

With his career ended in disgrace, the loss of his beloved wife and daughter, and his own death imminent, he seeks retribution from his eventual grave. Using his meth-addicted nephew as a weapon, he sets out to destroy the five people responsible for his dismal life: An abusive priest, his best friend from high school, his violent alcoholic father, a corrupt lobbyist, and an unfaithful lover. If the nephew murders them within three months, he  inherits the senator’s estate.

The senator’s nephew, Jake Wilson, systematically eliminates each victim, and with each successful homicide, comes that much closer to inheriting the senator’s estate. What seems to the nephew to be a simple murder-for-hire ends up hurtling him into a deadly turn of events resulting in a much different outcome than he expected.

 

When a lesbian is brutally murdered in a sleepy college town in Central Vermont, Police Chief Frank Macy ignores his homophobic tendencies and sets out to catch the killer. Before he and his small team of officers can solve the crime, another young lesbian is similarly murdered.

Six years earlier, the governor of Vermont signed legislation to allow civil unions of the same sex, disrupting the small town of Farmington, and doubling its population, with most of the new residents admittedly gay.

Now, because of the murders, the town is split evenly in its support of their police department and its investigation. On one side, the gay community claims that the Chief is deliberately hindering the murder investigation because the victims are lesbians. On the other side, the original residents enthusiasticaly support him and his department, and are resentful of the newcomers, whom they believe are trying to make the town theirs.

Among all this turmoil, Frank Macy tries to balance his duties with his tumultuous family life. When his wife leaves him, and his loving daughter rejects him, it becomes a race as to whether he will catch the murderer, who is rapidly destroying his once idyllic town, before his own family life disintegrates.

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