Almost Home

Lesa Bergmann and Shellie Matheson were best friends attending junior high school in Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri from 1967 to 1968. As army brats, moving every few years, childhood friends were hard to come by. When their fathers retired from the military, Shellie moved to Springfield, Missouri, while Lesa moved to her adoptive father's home town of Beavercreek, Ohio. As often happens when people are separated, the two girls lost touch. Fast forward fifty years to 2017. Sixty-four-year-old Shellie is fed up with the political scene. She hasn't seen this much hatred and divisiveness in America since the 1960s. To distract her attention from news headlines and social media bickering, she begins to search in earnest for Lesa. But, instead of finding respite from hatred, Shellie comes face to face with it as she encounters remnants of Nazi Germany on her journey, stumbling onto a 35-year-old unsolved murder in the process. Aided in her quest by friends and a former lover, Shellie sacrifices her innocence to find truth and meaning in American society and her personal life.If you like Lee Child, Michael Connelly and Linda Fairstein, read Debra Walden Davis.