Nicholas D Brown

Norman Bereft Nicholas D Brown

Publisher Marketing: NORMAN BEREFT Norman D Beech has narrowly squeezed by a fatal pile-up on life's highway. Alcohol-induced blackouts have deeply cratered all lanes behind him. The road ahead is fogbound, obscured by uncertainty and doubt. Jobless, beset by creditors, and facing DUI charges, the troubled 40-year-old engineer struggles to get his life in order. Putting his Connecticut house up for sale, he flies back to his boyhood home near Washington, DC, to be with his widowed mother, Ethel. Depression and anxiety attacks impede his recovery. At his mother's urging, he seeks and receives help from her pastor, Father Bob Hopkins. The two men discover much in common, meeting often to confront their fears together and begin a close friendship. Unemployed for over a year, Norm lands a job and meets Kay Bradley, whose charms overcome his fear of getting involved. Unwilling to wait for the Church's annulment of his previous marriage, they elope to Las Vegas. His job-travel demands soon test the strength of their union, but he is ecstatic when he learns that she is pregnant. A Trojan horse of uncertainty works its way back into Norm's life. A tiny seed of doubt precipitates a tragic act leading to the loss of all he holds dear. Overwhelmed by grief and depression, he fixates on an alcoholic teenager as the source of all his misery. Norm has nothing left to live for but his revenge-Warren Ward must pay with his life!