Blue Creek Novels
Character Profiles

 

Bonne Femme

 

         Richard Carter, like most men and women thrust into the horrible crapshoot of combat, has emerged both bloodied and bowed.  He sees himself as a once-decent man who has done something unforgivable, something for which atonement is impossible.  Yet he still wants to make a difference and dreams of a career in the FBI---a dream never to be realized.

 

        Jill Belbenoit is a young woman of modest means who has come to the land of her maternal grandfather to complete her education at Pere Marquette University.  Unwilling to give up her dream and disappoint the maiden aunt who raised her, she refuses to return to her native Brittany when she finds herself in a threatening situation involving two men who seem to be fighting over her.  Should she believe Richard or fear him?  Tough, intelligent, and usually very perceptive, she finds that the most frightening thing of all is one's own uncertainty.

 

        Mic Boyd:  compared to Richard he was the perfect soldier, smart, fearless, dedicated, and uncursed by second thoughts or self-doubt.  In Somalia he seemed totally comfortable with death, violence, and mayhem.  In fact, he relished them.  He comes to Cartier and presumes a friendship that never was.

 

        Marta Florez, a friend of Jill's from Merida, Mexico.  Because of their friendship she is drawn deeply into the craziness that evolves.

 

     


Canaan Camp
      Richard Carter is now a Hawthorn County "road deputy," the lowest level of full-time deputy in the Sheriff's Department.  He suspects a link between killings in northeast Arkansas and a dumped body found in the county, but must investigate it on his own time because it doesn't fit into his job description.
(For Richard's background see Bonne Femme above)    
      Jill Carter (nee Belbenoit) is a history professor at Blue Creek Community College, a job for which she is over-qualified, but in which she is satisfied.  Richard suspects that she is wasting her talents in an attempt to keep him from succumbing to the depression from which he suffers.
(For Jills background see Bonne Femme above)
   
      Shug Shively is Richard's straight-laced, but politcally savvy boss, perenially elected Sheriff of Hawthorn County.  He is a huge man, as rural sheriff's often are since they must look the part.  He is utterly incorruptible.
     
      Bobby Lee Paget is a spree killer with ties to the Oregon Freemen, a separatist militia organization.
   
      Father Joshua (formerly US Senator Josh Leland) is the charismatic leader of the Wilderness Church at Canaan Camp in Hawthorn County.
   
      Raven Bliss, is a young woman with a nightmare of a childhood who is trying to salvage her life in the camp.  She sees the Wilderness Church as her family, and almost worships Father Joshua. 
     
      Shane Sanders, is a young man trying to do likewise.  He loves Raven although she cannot give him what he most wants from her.
   

Secret Song
         Ron Guidry is a newly-hired deputy from New Orleans with extensive homicide experience.  He is profane, irreverent, and grates on many people's nerves.  The question is that given his extensive professional experience:  Why has he fetched up in a place like Hawthorn County?
               
         Harold Porter  is a recently paroled murderer who has returned to his home after more than twenty years.  He is a man out of time, friendless, and as far as the modern world is concerned, clueless.