Roger Brown Skill of the Killdeer

Annotation

A mother tries to protect her sons. One is just a boy of fourteen and vulnerable, the other is much older and deeply troubled, but in her efforts to control their fragile worlds, she opens wide a door to a scenario that is much worse. The naive boy is caught in a dire crosscurrent, being that he's been conditioned to step lightly around his brother (a pedophile) as not to push him over the edge-this, while a rapist is combing the woods nearby, looking for soft, compliant boys just like him. What can possibly bring clarity and light to a young man ripped to shreds by this unforeseeable predicament? The year is 1981. Years later, near the turn of the century, he is estranged by all. He goes alone into the realm of the mind and nature. He listens. He answers the challenge to observe life carefully, and then to dig down deep for the revelation his dogged perseverance will bring.