Jessie Crew Mysteries

Twelve-year-old Jessie finds out that a young teen girl was found murdered at a lumber mill log pond less than a mile from where she and her mother just moved. She sets her sights on finding the killer, not realizing that she might become the killer's next victim. It's the summer of 1956 in the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, a place and time where kids were free to ride their bikes into adventure and danger. Prejudice was rampant, and everyone had secrets.

The story takes place in 1956 in Oregon. When authorities find out that 12-year-old Jessie is being raised in a lesbian home. They remove her and place her on a ranch where 20-some barefoot girls are treated like slave labor. The ranch owner’s boyfriend tries to force himself on Jessie, but she fights back, stabbing him with a pitchfork. She escapes with no shoes, no food, no money, and no idea where she is. She is terrified that the cops will find her and arrest her for murder.  

It's 1957 in Oregon, where prejudice runs rampant. As if finding out that her best friend's dad was thrown in jail for being a Pinko Commie isn't enough, Jessie learns the identity of her own father whom she never knew existed. Even though their lives are in a turmoil, Jessie and her friend Deboyce risk life, limb, and their own freedom to try and save a trapped girl and the lives of 20 other barefoot, enslaved girls who are being worked to near starvation by a tyrant.

A young teen girl is torn between proving her friend is innocent of killing his mother, and finding out why there are horse embryos growing in the rabbits she is taking care of. This is book 4 in the Jessie Crew Mysteries series. Jessie and her buddy Deboyce are tangled in a maze of intrigue that tests their friendship, and endangers their lives along with the lives of their friends and schoolmates.