Near the beginning of “Stepping on Fingers,” Saddam Hussein’s former bagman and the impeached governor of Georgia are on their way to find Lea: “The knot in Tariq’s stomach tightened several turns as the Syracuse airport’s exit booth’s occupant came…
#Danger
Personal risk
Unplanned Procedure
Lea’s horrifying journey gets worse: “As light and dark began to drift apart, I felt something very heavy holding my wrists tight against a frigid, waxy metal surface. Except for patches of warmth between my legs and under the soft…
Escaping Lea’s Minder
In “Stepping on Fingers,” Lea takes action to save herself in a New Hampshire church where she and Drak were staying. “A sudden calm enveloped Lea. Her attention was drawn back to the large, heavy, circular floor polisher. Its three-pronged…
Escaping from Russia through Finland
Early in “Stepping on Fingers,” Lea is surrounded by her two minders as their train stops at the Russian-Finnish border: “As Lea listened intently to the Russian border guards clomping slowly toward them through the next carriage, Willy snuggled against…
David Garvey’s Pregnant Lover in Danger
Part of the beginning of “Goshawk:” “David leaned over to gently caress the line of her chin but couldn’t bring himself to disturb her slumber. Then David quietly eased himself out of their bed and tiptoed across a narrow patch…
Danger at the State Fair
When David Garvey’s two sons were about to be kidnapped at the Bangor State Fair: “The boys heard an anguished female voice in the dark of the funhouse: “Can you please help? I fell down and I can’t get up.…
Mayhem in the Courtroom
One of many gripping scenes in “Goshawk:” “If you do not behave properly, the Court will impose fines on you and, if you still do not act in accordance with the rules of this Court, you might be sent to…
Memorial Day in Camden, Maine
Lea returns to America after escaping from Russian penal colony, the beginning of Memorial Day: “Propped up by nearly identical VA-issued aluminum canes, two bent old men in dark blue uniforms leaned over to salute a headless gray granite statue…
Iraqi Hit Team
The Prologue of “Goshawk:” “Like a grotesque nightmare, a silent slide show of horrors cycled through Layla’s exhausted brain. She relived pushing her younger brother, Sami, on an old tire hanging from a frayed rope behind Liberate the Delta Secondary…
North Country Justice
Here’s an initial part of Doug McPheters’s “Stepping on Fingers,” where Lea Holderness is sent to a Russian penal colony by a US religious court for disagreeing with new laws restricting traditional Americans freedoms: “But I didn’t do anything wrong! …
