Sketch: A Novel

Richard is a man of many talents – science teacher, basketball coach, karate expert, sketch artist, womanizer – who likes to think he is above the rules. When another teacher discovers his indiscretion involving a seventeen year old student, he flees from Maine to Ohio, seeking refuge with Mac, a college buddy he hasn’t seen in years. Mac, a computer expert, part criminal and part humanitarian, delves into Richard’s past and finds incidents of interest besides his current problem: a shooting, a tryst with a suicidal woman, the disappearance of another lover, firings from teaching positions. In part faithful to his old friend, and in part using Richard’s past as leverage, Mac provides Richard with an alias and a job in his lucrative illegal enterprise. A half-hearted police investigation eventually falls into the lap of an Ohio State Policeman who happens to be the insanely jealous ex-husband of Richard’s latest lover. Violence ensues, and the tension rises as Richard, in a state of near madness, heads back to Maine intent on settling the score with the woman who exposed him.