News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
There’s trouble in Montana in 2020.
Larry Len Peterson loves the West, from the Montana of his youth to his Sisters Country ranch.
Over the past decade, Peterson has celebrated the beauty and heritage of the American West in a series of coffee table art books on the likes of the iconic artist Charles M. Russell and classic sporting artist Phillip R. Goodwin.
As a doctor, Peterson published numerous papers in the areas of dermatology, biochemistry and medical genetics.
Now the Western Heritage Award-winning author has turned to defending the West in fiction, with a new thriller entitled "Halfway to Midnight." It's 2020. Dr. Don Lewis returns to his Montana hometown to find his soul and practice family medicine. But he finds his small-town idyll threatened by The Trinity Project, a sinister cabal aiming at subverting American democracy into a totalitarian society.
"I like challenges," Peterson said of his foray into fiction.
The story explores themes that are important to Peterson: medicine, religion, politics. While the themes are topical, and "this is definitely a book with a message," Peterson is quick to disavow a specific political or ideological agenda. He sees himself as independent - and an advocate for the bedrock values of small town and rural life. He sees these values under threat.
That threat is a looming menace in "Halfway to Midnight," and it calls upon his protagonist to act upon the dictates of his conscience, even when most of the townsfolk are too compromised - or simply lack the true grit - to have his back.
If that sounds familiar, it's deliberate.
"The book is kind of based on 'High Noon,' with Gary Cooper," Peterson said.
The story is a thriller, with a compressed time frame that pushes the story along.
"It all takes place in one week," he said. "It's fast-paced."
"Halfway to Midnight" is published by Tumbleweed Reflections in a handsome hardcover edition. It is available through Paulina Springs Books in Sisters.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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