Grudge Count – A Willow and Birch novel

Grudge Count
320 Pages
ISBN 978-1-7322763-0-7

A woman's body is found in a city park. She has been stabbed six times. There is no evidence of sexual assault, no suspect, no apparent motive and very little in the way of leads.

Willow Sturgeon is being promoted to detective and she is being partnered with the department drunk. Willow has been assigned to him for a reason.

Travis Birch is the department's best detective. At least he was before he became dependent on the bottle. Now he goes into work and finds he has another new partner, a barbie doll named Willow.

Willow and Birch draw the city park murder and from minute one, their relationship becomes volatile. There is a murder to solve. There is a detective to train. There is an illness to cure. Time is running out on all three.

Jon Latham

About Jon Latham (Fresno, California Author)

Jon Latham

Born in Ventura County, California, Jon traveled just about everywhere while his family was in search of employment, giving him a broad, worldly view. Part of Jon’s childhood was spent on his parent’s farm outside of Sanger, California. There he spent a good deal of his time not already taken up with homework and chores, with the assorted animals of the ranch. This is where Jon gained respect for and care for animals.

Income and employment became a challenge for his parents and a move was made to Las Vegas, Nevada, where his parents had been offered employment. Upon graduation, Jon joined the army and became a medic. His tour found him stationed at Fort Ord, California, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and eventually to 97th general hospital, in Frankfurt, Germany.

That is where Jon met a nurse from Minnesota that he felt would be his future wife. However, each attempt to obtain a date was met with “Get lost!”, “Take a hike”, or “Beat it!”. Jon was persistent, however, and the nurse finally relented, allowing Jon to walk her home one day.

A levy came down for Viet Nam and Jon’s name was on it. Jon was assigned to an armored unit and his favorite saying from his tour was, “Everyone else got to ride inside the tank, but I had to ride outside with a big medical target on my helmet”. Halfway through his tour, Jon became eligible for R&R (Rest and recuperation). He was flown to Honolulu, Hawaii. That nurse met him there and they were married. A union that lasted 42 years, until her death from an illness she had carried for thirty-five of those years.

Heartbroken, Jon took to the computer and began to write a short story about a another world. One without so much disease and illness. That short story became a novel. Then that novel became seven. The Lands of Mother novels. It took Jon six years to complete, but it was good therapy.

Jon’s working career consisted of being a salesman, a police officer, marketing and retail management, and now, Author.

Today, Jon lives in California’s central valley and continues to write. He is also an avid reader and writes a review on every book he reads. He posts those reviews on his website and the “Lands of Mother” facebook page.