Charles B. Neff

Hard Cache Charles B. Neff

Neither marriage nor murder are on Magnus Torval's agenda when he and his fiancé, Mariela, travel to the tiny mountain town of Swiftwater, Washington for a reunion with their friends, but the recently retired police officer soon finds himself caught up in the rip currents of both. Magnus' promises to Mariela require him to stay away from police work but, as Shakespeare put it, "the course of true love never did run smooth." Mariela's spontaneous wedding plans and Magnus' discovery of a fresh corpse make for an unholy combination that threatens to sweep away their happiness and jail a beloved priest whose congregation fled Russia due to religious persecution. As events unfold Magnus, Mariela, a local policeman and a young Ukranian woman are drawn into an investigation that leads to upheaval for many and terror for some, exposing buried connections to art theft, organized crime and brutality during the Russian-Afghan War. Threads of memory and action, celebration and revenge, converge in a climactic confrontation deep in the mountains. Hard Cache takes a look at events forcing people to examine their commitments - past, present and future - in the light of day.