by PS Wells
Awarded Mystery Suspense of the Year, Unnatural Cause explores two long-unsolved family mysteries rooted in World War II.
My profoundly smart coauthor, Max Garwood, is a patent attorney and inventor. Max pitches brilliant plots to me and I craft a novel from his ten bullet points.
Unnatural Cause, the recent book in the Marc Wayne Action-Adventure Series, is equal parts Max’s fiction and my truth.
My grandmother was one of ten children who grew up in a small, patriotic burg in the Midwest. When the US entered World War II, her oldest sister’s son, who had been a pilot since age ten, entered the armed forces. Grandma’s young husband, my grandfather, also joined the military.
On July 6, 1944, the troop train carrying 1000 freshly minted soldiers, including my grandfather, left Indianapolis on their journey to the European war theater. As the sun set in Tennessee, the train jumped the tracks, careened off a cliff, and crashed into a house-sized rock in the river. Was it sabotaged? The largest troop train wreck in the nation, that tragedy continues to dramatically impact the sleepy town of Jellico and the families of the men who were aboard on that fateful evening.
Grandma’s oldest sister was informed that her pilot son was killed in a test flight. Though they buried his uniform, many people said they saw him after the war. But when family members searched for him, they found his military record had been expunged.
What’s a novelist to do with an excellent plot and a long-unsolved family mystery?
Named after the herb, angelica, the tiny town of Jellico is the faithful keeper of the flame. Daily, people make the pilgrimage to the site of the devastation to ask questions and, as in my case, try to comprehend the unimaginable tragedy that forever altered the dynamics of my family.
In each of my novels, I take the reader somewhere you’ve never been before and show you something you didn’t know.
Unnatural Cause explores what could have happened during World War II. Along with our hero, Marc Wayne, visit the train wreck site in Jellico, tour the Atomic City, walk the patriotic cemetery in Ohio, and consider the vast impact decisions made in the past have on us today.
From my research and the stories handed down through the family, I am certain the two vital men we lost during that war between good and evil did it right.
Unnatural Cause’s surprise ending honors them and, just maybe, offers some closure for those of us with unsolved family mysteries.
Get started on the Marc Wayne Adventure Series with a complimentary copy of The Patent. In this free ebook, small-town inventor and patent attorney Marc Wayne goes missing when he helps his FBI sister, Mallory, on her first case. Click this link to download your free ebook of The Patent.
PS Wells
PeggySue Wells is the bestselling author of 40 books, including the mystery suspense book of the year, Unnatural Cause. Action and adventure, romantic suspense, military romance, and cozy mystery are the page-turning novels by P.S. Wells, including Chasing Sunrise, Homeless for the Holidays, and The Patent. How to live better, easier, and simpler is the focus of her nonfiction, including Slavery in the Land of the Free and The Ten Best Decisions A Single Mom Can Make.
PeggySue is the founder of SingleMomCircle.com
Find books and resources by PS Wells on her website: https://www.peggysuewells.com
