Once Upon a Time there was Vince and Nancy…

This is the sobering story about domestic and substance abuse in America and becomes somewhat of a knowing commentary about the gigantic obstacles that must be surmounted be they social or through the courts system.  Nancy Lewiston’s story is a microcosm of one of our country’s most frightening social pandemics: domestic violence.

The story begins with the heroine, Nancy Lewiston, leaving her husband, Vince Cooper, under the stealth of the early morning.  It took Vince hours to even know that he’d been was still incontinent from a heavy night of substance abuse for most of the day.  Nancy had hatched a plan to leave her emotionally deranged husband the in southern California community of Vista Oaks and start a new life in an entirely new community, with new identities for herself and her children Frank and Lilley.  Nancy was now Suzanne Keller and her children were Russ and Angela.

Vince in the meantime would not take this abandonment lying down.  He didn’t care so much that his family was gone.  He was insulted.  Vince, in his deranged state, could only see his family’s flight this as a personal affront.  It was an affront that would require, or better to say demand, his exacting revenge on the mastermind, the responsible party – his estranged wife, Nancy.

So into action he went…

Vince started with the most obvious of havens, Nancy’s family in their hometown of Greenbriar, California, about 150 miles to the North.  Vince just knew that his in-laws were behind the whole escape.  He wasn’t far wrong as Nancy’s older brother, a successful lawyer in Massachusetts, was behind the scenes making arrangements for her to start her new life even further away from Vince, under the watchful protection of Castle City’s young police captain, Trent Brown.

Nancy’s new life of Suzanne was as dual as her identity.  As Suzanne, although she had all the struggles of starting life over as a single mom, she also had the joys of living life and raising her two children with never having to worry about suffering the emotional and physical abuses that Vince dished out at whim.  But as Nancy, on the other hand, she was still looking over her shoulder everywhere she went for the man who was coming to destroy her new life, the man who wanted to take not only her children, but her dignity.  She knew Vince was a dangerous predator on the hunt for her – and he was after her children.

In the meantime Vince through a private detective had discovered that Nancy was in Castle City.  But because Vince reneged on paying the bill he could not find out her exact location.  Vince didn’t have the time or money to continue to go back and forth to Castle City in search of Nancy and the children.  He refused to give up.  He was fired by his thirst for revenge so he decided his best option was to move to Castle City and get work.  He would settle there just long enough to find his prey.  And in a dramatic turn in the plotline, Vince comes within a gnat’s hair of finding Nancy as he starts an adulterous affair with Christina Brown, the wife of the police captain, Trent Brown, the one man in Castle City who know exactly Nancy Lewiston’s assumed identity and whereabouts.

Although settling in to their new life in the new community and their new school, Frank and Lilly begin coming with the hard questions about their father that Nancy knew she’d eventually have to answer.  They want to know about their father.  They need a father figure in their young lives.  Caught between fears of losing her children and having to look over her shoulder everywhere, Nancy ultimately decides to face the music and stop hiding.  Whatever consequences will come will come.  She wants a divorce.  She wants to formally finalize her life with Vince.  Through Vince and Nancy’s divorce proceeding Vince was finally able to pin Nancy to the mat through the court system and win custody of Frank and Lilly, based on legal technicalities stemming from Nancy’s flight.

But the story doesn’t end there!  Youngerman has provided a dramatic ending for the story with a big twist in the outcome.  To give this away in a book review would do the author an injustice.  If you want to know the ending, read it yourself!

Public Lies, a professional looking paperback, was printed by Outskirts Press in Denver, Colorado.  This book is available through the publisher and on the various online stories such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, etc.  You can also get the book through the author by contacting her through her personal website or you can request it at your local bookstore.

Brenda Youngerman’s Public Lies is her second work which uses the novel to shed light on the plight of families dealing with domestic abuse, her first being her debut literary venture, Private Scars.  In reading Youngerman’s books and studying her website you will see that she is on a crusade to fight domestic abuse.  She has intended her novels to show the plight of victims who are struggling with the causes and affects of the abusers.

Let’s hope she finds her audience.

Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Public Lies

The above review was contributed by:  Gary Dale Cearley: Gary is an expatriate American who chooses to write about controversial material. His subject matter tends to run the gamut from historical subjects to biography and even humor. Originally from Arkansas, he has spent several years in Korea as well as Vietnam and is now living in Thailand. Click Here to read an interview with Gary. 

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