2000 · Every man has had the thought at least once. Walk away, start over as someone else. It's the kind of fantasy you never say out loud. I wanted to write what happens right after you believe you got away with it.
The Widowmaker
In the timber industry, a “widowmaker” is a broken limb or treetop hanging by a thread, ready to fall and kill without warning.
Dale Haywood stole his name from a dead man on a logging road in 1974 and spent fifteen years building a life on it. He built a timber operation in the Oregon Cascades, had a wife, two kids, and a house that he framed by hand. He earned his reputation one honest deal at a time.
When U.S. Marshals arrest him for five murders committed in the 1970s, Dale confesses immediately. Not to the killings. To stealing the identity. The confession should end the murder case. Instead, it becomes the prosecution’s foundation. The knots used on the victims are the same knots Dale ties at work. The burial sites are on the roads he walks every day.
His lawyer tells him the truth: the skills that built his honest life are now the evidence that will convict him.
A psychological suspense that poses an essential dilemma: At what point does a false persona you’ve sustained for years become the only self you have left?