What I love about this story is it’s reminiscent of a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys type mystery, but updated….very now.

So Let’s find out what it’s all about…

Margaret McWhorter enjoys a laid-back Freshman year in high school flirting with Jimmy Willmore, swimming and hanging out with friends—until that day. Her brother, Sean, suffers a stroke from taking a steroid. Now he’s lying unconscious in a hospital. Margaret’s angry at her dad for pushing Sean to be a great quarterback, but a fire of hatred burns inside her to make the criminals pay. Looking for justice, she takes Jimmy and her best friend, Emily, through a twisted, drug-filled sub-culture. A clue sends them deep into the woods behind the school where they overhear drug dealers discuss Sean. Time and time again they walk a treacherous path and come face to face with danger. Even the cop on the case can’t stop them from investigating. All the while Margaret really wants to cure Sean, heal the hate inside, and open her heart to love.

This novel fascinates me and I couldn’t help but ask Gail a few questions…

Nike: What motivated you to write about illegal drug use?

Gail: When I thought of all the problems teens face today, illegal drugs struck me as being one of the biggest. I also wanted to write a mystery and to have the main characters participate in sports. One of the reasons teens give for taking steroids is to make them bigger and stronger to enhance athletic performance. That gives them an advantage they can use to win or be the best.

Nike: Is the story based on a true life experience?

Gail: The sports part is. We’re a sports oriented family. The steroid part isn’t. The theme of the book—we don’t have to be number one for God to love us rattled around in my head for a long time. When I was in college a girl there tried to commit suicide because her grades weren’t as good as she or someone thought they should be. The pain she must have felt gnawed at me. Sadly, later I saw several more lives destroyed over situations in which people couldn’t achieve number one status, or could no longer be the best. After I married, had a child and began to work closely with children, I saw a big difference in those who believed they should do their best as opposed to those who were driven to be better than everyone else. The premise of having to be number one and steroid use fit well into a book involving sports and mystery.

Purchase Links:

Amazon. http://tiny.cc/lxssww

Smashwords. http://tiny.cc/pyssww

Front Porch Romance. http://tiny.cc/rzssww

All Romance Books. http://tiny.cc/40ssww

Award-winning author Gail Pallotta’s a wife, Mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. She’s been a Sunday school teacher, a swim-team coordinator and an after-school literary instructor. A former regional writer of the year for American Christian Writers Association, she won Clash of the Titles in 2010. Some of her published articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums. Readers can find her on the internet on the staff of Clash of the Titles, http://www.clashofthetitles.blogspot.com and at her blog, http://www.gailpallotta.blogspot.com. Her Web Site is http://www.gailpallotta.com