Bridging Time -- The Clay Cantrell Mysteries: Tales of the Unexpected
Author Bruce Wetterau talks about the series
You might say Clay Cantrell and his friend Mac Harper have one foot in the past and one in the present. Their hometown, Staunton, Virginia, is steeped in history, and it's many 19th century buildings are fertile ground for anyone harboring a kinship with the past. Clay and Mac got their start in business by renovating an old grist mill on the outskirts of Staunton, and the mill now serves as Clay's home base.
At first glance, Staunton itself might seem a peaceful, country village nestled in the foothills bordering Virginia's bucolic Shenandoah Valley. But like all places where people come together in numbers greater than one, there is more going on than meets the eye. That's grist for our two heroes, who are both ex-Army Rangers. They've made the transition from a life of daring military exploits to what should be a humdrum civilian career as partners renovating historic houses, but they cannot quite escape their adventurous past--trouble has a way of finding them. They know how to take care of themselves, though, and fortunately for us, they're not the type to let go of a mystery until it's solved.
When the series begins, the ruggedly handsome Clay is still single and playing the field, but he soon finds his match in a ravishing brunette, a Staunton real estate agent named Susan Stratton. The course of true love, they soon discover, is never easy. Mac, for his part, is married to Rita, a warm-hearted woman who has built a thriving catering business. A third friend of Clay's is a high school history teacher named Jimmy Campbell. He is married with three children.
Jimmy's knowledge of history is the link in the first book, Lost Treasure, to the theme that plays out in all the Clay Cantrell mystery thrillers: the historical back story. It's really a full-blown, second plot line interwoven with events in the modern-day mystery story. And in each book, that historical narrative ultimately bridges the river of time, so to speak, to reach forward in some way and effect the contemporary mystery Clay and Mac are trying to solve.
In book one, for example, flashbacks to the last days of the Civil War eventually reveal how the Confederate gold came to be lost and became the source of a surprising revelation for Clay as well. But I shouldn't say any more than that here. In the second book, Killer Fog, flashbacks to prewar America tell the story of a Nazi spy ring operating here and provide key clues to the mystery Clay and Mac must solve. And in The Girl Behind the Wall...Well, you will just have to read the book to see how events from a time long ago again somehow bridge the years separating past and present.
Let me leave you with a final thought: "The past is clear as a mirror, the future hard as lacquer," or so says one of those inscrutable Chinese proverbs. To which I might add, when it comes to the future, we cannot hope to see any deeper than that. But then, inevitably, that's the mystery at hand that Clay and Mac must solve.
For a brief description of one or the other Cantrell series books, click on the appropriate cover below. Links will also lead you to reviews, an excerpt (read for free), a nonfiction article or two (blogs?) on subjects relating to the books, author interviews about the book, and quick links to booksellers for purchasing a copy.
You might say Clay Cantrell and his friend Mac Harper have one foot in the past and one in the present. Their hometown, Staunton, Virginia, is steeped in history, and it's many 19th century buildings are fertile ground for anyone harboring a kinship with the past. Clay and Mac got their start in business by renovating an old grist mill on the outskirts of Staunton, and the mill now serves as Clay's home base.
At first glance, Staunton itself might seem a peaceful, country village nestled in the foothills bordering Virginia's bucolic Shenandoah Valley. But like all places where people come together in numbers greater than one, there is more going on than meets the eye. That's grist for our two heroes, who are both ex-Army Rangers. They've made the transition from a life of daring military exploits to what should be a humdrum civilian career as partners renovating historic houses, but they cannot quite escape their adventurous past--trouble has a way of finding them. They know how to take care of themselves, though, and fortunately for us, they're not the type to let go of a mystery until it's solved.
When the series begins, the ruggedly handsome Clay is still single and playing the field, but he soon finds his match in a ravishing brunette, a Staunton real estate agent named Susan Stratton. The course of true love, they soon discover, is never easy. Mac, for his part, is married to Rita, a warm-hearted woman who has built a thriving catering business. A third friend of Clay's is a high school history teacher named Jimmy Campbell. He is married with three children.
Jimmy's knowledge of history is the link in the first book, Lost Treasure, to the theme that plays out in all the Clay Cantrell mystery thrillers: the historical back story. It's really a full-blown, second plot line interwoven with events in the modern-day mystery story. And in each book, that historical narrative ultimately bridges the river of time, so to speak, to reach forward in some way and effect the contemporary mystery Clay and Mac are trying to solve.
In book one, for example, flashbacks to the last days of the Civil War eventually reveal how the Confederate gold came to be lost and became the source of a surprising revelation for Clay as well. But I shouldn't say any more than that here. In the second book, Killer Fog, flashbacks to prewar America tell the story of a Nazi spy ring operating here and provide key clues to the mystery Clay and Mac must solve. And in The Girl Behind the Wall...Well, you will just have to read the book to see how events from a time long ago again somehow bridge the years separating past and present.
Let me leave you with a final thought: "The past is clear as a mirror, the future hard as lacquer," or so says one of those inscrutable Chinese proverbs. To which I might add, when it comes to the future, we cannot hope to see any deeper than that. But then, inevitably, that's the mystery at hand that Clay and Mac must solve.
For a brief description of one or the other Cantrell series books, click on the appropriate cover below. Links will also lead you to reviews, an excerpt (read for free), a nonfiction article or two (blogs?) on subjects relating to the books, author interviews about the book, and quick links to booksellers for purchasing a copy.
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Bruce's Short Takes:
Jiggleation
(Fully full disclosure: the following is fiction--with a grain of truth)
Nowadays you'll find lots of chatter about AI floating around cyberspace like feathers from a busted pillow. As yet, however, I haven't heard a word about what I call "jiggleation."
You'll have to pardon me for making up a new word. I'm a writer so I do have license for that. But you can't blame me, the messenger, for the problem of jiggleation. I'm unassailably innocent on that score. (More full disclosure: I don't own stock in anything anywhere in cyberspace, though my great-grand nephew may.)
The plain truth is that you may have suffered jiggleation--pronounced ‘jiggle-a-‘tion for those who insist on such things--to some degree without even knowing it. Doctors these days do recognize it as a condition, though they don't yet have a clue as to a cure and aren't even sure it won't disappear on its own. That last would be a disaster for a certain pharmaceutical company currently researching a drug to ameliorate the symptoms.
What's clear is the cause: the not-so-subtle jiggles in computer and smartphone text that happen when those annoying pop-up ads do just that while you are trying to read something. Some sites even have pre-programmed jiggles to break your concentration, presumably to divert your attention from what you are reading to a sexy babe's image or other eye-catching graphic hawking a nearby ad.
The American Association of Profit-Making Shrinks (are there any others?) has its own label for the phenomenon, Grange's cerebro-agitatus reflex discordantus. It's a typically obfuscating terminology that serves no useful purpose beyond keeping their patients in a perpetual state of confusion and writers like me off their turf. Nevertheless, I'm happy to report the association has gone on record as "concerned" about what effect jiggleation (a jiggle by any other name is a jiggleation) is having on reading comprehension in adults and on brain development in youngsters who are exposed to even an hour a day of jiggleating text.
At a recent televised Congressional hearing on the problem, Dr. Chandupta Assumatra, the association's president, blinked in the glare of TV cameras flooding the Senate chamber and delivered the bad news. He had no little prompting from the august, gray-haired and bespectacled Sen. Adam Branch. Dr. Assumatra quoted experts on reading disorders as saying that jiggles severely disrupt a normal reader's quarter-second retinal fixations on a line. What's more, jiggleation also makes them lose their place and have to hunt for it again after each jiggle. Thus, the unexpected movement disrupts both reading speed and, not surprisingly, reading comprehension as well.
Dr. Assumatra also noted that in extreme cases patients' speech becomes halting, with breaks of what he called "dead air" of varying length being reported between blurted out words and phrases. Handwritten correspondence suffers as well, with irregular broken lines and line spaces that mimic jiggleation. Regrettably, he said, these patients are no longer able to coherently express thoughts beyond a fourth grade level.
Adults, and children especially, even exhibit muscular tics that make for an odd change in their gait. They may be walking along a perfectly straight line when they inexplicably juke left or right for a few paces before heading off in a straight line again--but in the new direction. This is both disturbing and dangerous for the patient--some of whom have suddenly veered into walls or moving traffic.
Most people, he reported, find even occasional jiggleation frustrating and simply turn off the offending site. That of course defeats both the purpose of the text and the ads. In rare cases of long-term exposure to jiggleation, Dr. Assumatra said, angry patients have actually attacked their computer screens. One woman clubbed hers with a rolling pin (who has rolling pins anymore?). Meanwhile, many more women are reported growing their hair long enough now to fall down to and frame eye-catching, open décolletage similar to that worn in some pop-up ads.
Put on the hot seat by that testimony, ex-hacker and president of the World Online Advertiser's Association, Wiley Coot (no relation to Wile Coyote, despite a somewhat wolfish appearance) explained that online companies are just like every other company--they have to make money somehow. The ads help businesses bring their products to customers' attention and help sell them. "What could possibly be wrong with that?" he asked with an innocent expression and upturned palms spread wide.
Refusing to be taken in, Sen. Branch leaned forward to deliver his admonition, "What, sir, about the disastrous effect on reading comprehension?"
"With all due respect, Senator," Mr. Coot said with a pasted smile, "fourth graders want to buy our advertiser's products too."
Be sure to check the links page for my OmnimysteryNews author interviews and other breaking news
Be sure to check the links page for my OmnimysteryNews author interviews and other breaking news
