When Booker T. Riggs catches his cousin stealing at deer hunting camp in rural Missouri, he is drawn into the world of a notorious delinquent, Derko Slim. The more Booker tries to protect his family's name, the more determined Derko becomes to force Booker to respect his reign of violence and crime. With his Aunt Loretta nosing into his business, Booker realizes that appeasing Derko will only create more problems. Booker decides he must face the problem himself, risking his own safety to confront Derko about the threats and attempt to recover the antique civil war-era revolver his cousin stole as payback to Derko. Concluding at deer hunting camp a year later, Booker comes to see how his relationships with his father, with his family, and with himself have transformed through the choices he made during the scariest ordeal of his life.
About the Author: RP (Richard Paul) Vogt was born in the spring of 1972 at Missouri Baptist Hospital in Town and Country, Missouri, and grew up in Fenton and High Ridge (suburbs of St. Louis) where he attended Northwest High School. Rick left High Ridge for the University of Missouri, attending his first year in Rolla and concluding in Columbia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with an environmental emphasis. He lived one summer in Baton Rouge while interning at Dow Chemical Company, followed by local internships at 3M and at the College of Engineering's continuing education department. He moved back to St. Louis in 1997 to take a position as an engineer at a local firm, followed by employment at SBC (now AT&T) which took him to San Diego, California, in 1999. Within a few years, he became an independent consultant, working with the National Conflict Resolution Center, among other clients. During 2004 and 2005, Rick enrolled in creative writing and literature courses at a community college and began writing short stories and chapter excerpts for an unfolding story. In a burst of motivation in 2007 while completing a Master of Business Administration at the University of California, San Diego, he completed the manuscript for The Stargazer Journal and embarked on a journey of research, learning, and feedback to create the story as it exists today. He worked with editors and an agent in both informal and formal settings to complete The Stargazer Journal, his first novel, and continues to write for this fantasy series as well as other genres. His second novel is Crosshairs, a coming-of-age story, and his forthcoming third novel will be a nerdy fact-lovers action/adventure tale. He has now returned to Missouri, living near Carondelet Park in south St. Louis.