Second Evan Wycliff Mystery Exposes Teen Trafficking

LaPuerta Books and Media recently launched the second Evan Wycliff mystery, Preacher Fakes a Miracle. The first book in the series, Preacher Finds a Corpse, has already won two major book awards in the mystery category - an Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite and an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist.

In the publisher parlance of the mystery-thriller book genre, Evan Wycliff is an amateur sleuth, a young man cursed with an inquiring mind who gets drafted as a reluctant investigator. Locals in his Southern Missouri home call him Preacher because he's often called upon to deliver guest sermons at the Baptist church. But he's not ordained. In fact, he dropped out of Harvard Divinity School. And he also gave up on an astrophysics major at MIT. He's found answers to life's questions nowhere, and in his disillusionment he's returned to his roots in Appleton City. He's also been sorely disappointed in love. His beautiful fiancé, a brilliant Jewish scientist and defense contractor, was killed in a rocket attack in Syria. Nowadays, when not in the pulpit, Evan uses his investigative skills as skip tracer for the local car and tractor dealership.

In Preacher Fakes a Miracle, Evan counsels a boy who is afflicted with schizophrenia and has been accused of rape. The girl is another patient at the clinic who suffers from epilepsy. Some people think both of them are possessed by demons. But Evan discovers unscrupulous humans are abusing these children. Along with corruption in the child welfare system, he uncovers a teen trafficking ring run out of a luxury casino resort by a Russian mob.

Author Gerald Everett Jones explains, "The plot of this story is entirely fictional, but unfortunately these abuses are all too real. From what I've read, all forms of human slavery, including the sex trade, account for more than $150 billion a year in the world underground economy. And that's a conservative estimate. And no matter where you live in the U.S., the mental health and child welfare systems have been broken going back as far as anyone can remember. In rural America, and particularly in Southern Missouri, add to that sad state of affairs the income gaps created by chronic unemployment and farm foreclosures. Land speculators and "casino culture" are rushing in to fill the vacuum. And faced with all this, Preacher Wycliff, a blue boy in a red state, has the nerve to talk to locals about God. They pay attention not only because he speaks from the heart – but also because there is a false rumor he can work miracles."

Preacher Fakes a Miracle is available in trade paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon and booksellers worldwide.