This book is dedicated to the remarkable men who inspired my protagonist, Theodore Riley; my husband Joe Halleck III whose faith and love never wavers, my gifted brother and story-telling mentor Clark Kohanek, who with skilled understanding of the human psyche guided me into the mind of a sociopath, and my father, Oscar Kohanek, the true buried treasure of Manzanita, whose PTSD gave me a soldier’s story. And my grandfather, Frank Eli Meyers who, during the depression had to abandon his writerly dreams and box in the streets to feed his family.

Furthermore to my mother Connie Meyers, and my grandchildren Dominique and Davis Sitton-Law who inspire me to write stories with a moral compass hopeful that in the dark passages of their lives my words may resonate with their sense of humanity.

And finally a debt of gratitude to an unlikely source, my ex-father-in-law from thirty-five years ago, Lee K. Sitton who told me about the war orphans who stole his hard heart during the Korean War. His sixty year old forgotten photographs were found in my attic and served as inspiration for the backstory of Theodore Riley.