Remedy for Innocence (ePub)

"Remedy for Innocence" is a humorous coming-of-age true-love first-love murder mystery starring a naive peeping-tom orphan who fears he's illegitimate. Here's a very quick description:

It's 1957. 16 year-old Jack Smith has problems: First, he's the only virgin in high school (the shame!). Second, the whole town suspects he's illegitimate - they think his mother murdered his father 15 years ago, then skipped town with her lover. Last, if not least, the local football hero is bragging... he's banging Jack's "true love!"

Jack thinks he'll learn all about sex by a little voyeuristic trip to the local lovers' lane. A few bullets later he changes his mind. But he learns of a mixed-race affair that could affect marriages and reputations. He keeps his mouth shut. His pal Archie does not.

Public knowledge of the lovers' lane affair brings humiliation... and a beautiful married woman wanting information. Jack is mesmerized, hypnotized, idolized. But he is also troubled, both by conscience and angry husband. He needs protection... Uncle Jim's thirty-eight, and his brave guard dog, Willie!

True love waits... and Jack finally has a date. A thrashing from the football hero is inevitable. Jack's about to experience a "remedy for innocence."

Using the colorful language typical of teenage boys of that era, PD Wolfe weaves a masterpiece within the crowded coming of age romance books genre, using a plot so twisted that only the final lines reveal the truth.

A few excerpts can serve to unveil some of the players:

Uncle Jim:

...during his binges ...his mastery of the oath escalated exponentially to include curses that were regarded by many of the townspeople as genius. His ability to scald an offensive person, animal, automobile, or even a tree, with obscenities staggering to those within earshot, was admired by all of them. Worse, his skills were held in such esteem that his fabrications were repeated, and strangers to our town were often stricken in awe at the profoundness of the curses that flowed freely from the mouths of common men.

Jack:

...after our breathing had slowed, I had found something for which I had been unconsciously searching: A peacefulness, a contentment I had never known and, I suspected, only two people who love each other could know.

Mama Mary:

Mary shook her long-handled swatter with the dexterity of Babe Ruth, muttering things that sounded like "guddamn flies," and "gotcha little bastid" while she smeared tiny guts and broken wings across tables and counter alike. ...the sight of her in combat, slinging her swatter and cursing with every slap, was enough to eliminate the squeamish from the ranks of frequent diners.

Jack:

Was my image of purity so distorted? Had my opinions and values been misshapen by sixteen years of an uncle who spoke of honor and virtue and the merits of Southern manhood, yet cursed like a sailor, drank like a fish, and refused to admit that no one was fooled? Or was it the classics? Had that library of antiquated fantasy and treasured Southern rationalizations given me a warped perspective of what constituted propriety? Were virgins to be worshiped, non-virgins merely condoned?

"Remedy for Innocence" is a story - and a character - you won't soon forget!