Expendable Natives

About the Book

California sea lions are having seizures on the central coast of California. An eleven-year-old girl, Lissa Seawright, and her dog, Keats, find one of the first victims washed up on a Pacific City beach. Lissa is spending her summer there with her mother, Lorraine. They wait on the beach for hours along with others, including local newspaper reporter Logan Price, for help to arrive. Led by big Jack Kodolsky, the rescuers drive down a couple hours from the Pinniped Rescue Center in Santa Cruz. The veterinarian at the center, feisty Lyra Calhoun, waits at the center to examine the animal. The spectators witness the first rescue, which involves Jack and his team loading 250 pounds of quivering flesh for transfer. The incidence of sea lions under seizure soon becomes an epidemic, but the frustrated vet can’t isolate the cause. Lyra, Jack, Lisa, and Logan begin an investigation to locate the toxic culprit. Is it possible that something dangerous is saturating the sand dunes near Cenco Oil’s Refinery, where Lissa’s mother is the head of public relations? The team’s search will eventually take them from those sand dunes to a deadly confrontation on the water with a psychopathic killer.

About the Author

The Author, his wife, Wendy, and a dog named Binx, reside in the Rogue River Valley in Southwestern Oregon. It is a beautiful area blessed with rivers, forests, pear orchards, lakes, vineyards and some mountains tall enough to ski down. Crater Lake National Park, home to the country's deepest lake, is an hour drive to the north east. Driving an hour and a half west will bring you to pristine beaches, cliffs and giant rock formations carved by the blue-green waters of endless Pacific Ocean. The climate is mildly Mediterranean, the people are friendly, and there's no sales tax.