Scars & Strife

"This poignant narrative sheds light on the complexities of returning home from war and the power of resilience." -Melissa Melendez, California State Senator (Ret.), Navy Veteran

I've not read a debut this confident in a long, long time."-Tod Goldberg, New York Times Best-Selling Author of the Gangsterland Quartet

First Sergeant John Randall "Randy" Andrews, a gutsy Army Ranger, is a hero among his brothers in arms. But the Purple Hearts and Silver Stars he earned came at a great personal cost. Now plagued by PTSD, Randy returns home after thirteen combat tours to an emotionally distant wife and their two sons-one of them a toddler he's never met.

Struggling to piece his life together, Randy finds himself in handcuffs. And when the court-mandated VA counseling doesn't help, he embarks on a trip to Mexico, trying to escape his demons. There, during an unexpected encounter in a seedy tourist bar, he finds a possible road to redemption when he forms a connection with Matilda, a mountain lion kept in a cage as a tourist attraction.

So begins his journey back from the brink as he rediscovers something he learned on the battlefield: that sometimes one must cross a line in order to save someone . . . perhaps even himself.