"You're only as sick as your secrets," so the saying goes.
The author, Leslie MacDill, calls upon first-hand knowledge and a compelling Scots-Irish ancestral history to give us Lies We Were Told recounting the exploits of Aidan MacEwan, an American in search of his lineage, who unearths dark mysteries beginning with his deceased father that stretch back over two hundred years. Deception surrounds the previously unquestioned MacEwan family history involving a half-brother he thought long dead, who is anything but, and a step-mother whose early passing was likely hastened by a broken heart.
Aidan's investigation summons him to Great Britain and Northern Ireland in search of the family he never knew, where he is forced to confront his own devils and demons, in this world and beyond, aided by a Caribbean healer, her granddaughter, and a ginger-haired inamorata with probable paramilitary ties. An unquenchable thirst for knowledge has led Leslie MacDill down a spiritual path that includes esoteric Tibetan healing medicine, Zen Buddhism, advanced energy medicine and shamanism - into wildly divergent career choices (driving an 18-wheeler and working as a judicial assistant) - and a long-smoldering love affair with music that he indulged by becoming a professional touring musician, an on-air radio announcer, and a collector.
A self-proclaimed "Air Force brat," Leslie left the bosom of the South only briefly, the first three years of life, when his father was deployed to Okinawa, Japan. He lived through and participated in this nation's time of great social upheaval, the Sixties.
The author is an alumnus of Florida State University with a degree in political science, an accomplished cook, and he performs onstage with an African-style ashika drum and another that was hand-hewn from the limb of a hardwood tree by a fellow Reiki master.
Someone once described Leslie MacDill by remarking, "He's like Forest Gump - only smart!" Another dubbed him a "serial specialist," owing to his ability to thoroughly immerse himself in each endeavor and become extremely proficient at it before losing interest and moving on to the next. Hailing from the Panhandle of Florida, Leslie has sold kites on Panama City Beach and driven "big rigs" coast-to-coast through blizzards and hurricanes; he has been a touring drummer, an on-air radio personality, and a judicial assistant; he has owned his own "kicker bar" and been a professional skip-tracer; he is a Reiki master in two forms of the healing art and teaches cats and hogs to sit for treats. Along this twisted and winding path (and this is by no means a complete list!) Leslie has been a writer and editor of niche consumer magazines, trade publications, and a tabloid, and his poems appeared in the 1986 edition of New Voices In American Poetry. A self-described "Air Force brat" while growing up, he found it difficult to put down roots, physically or emotionally. However, the breadth and depth of his soul plays out within every written line - and for that we are grateful.