Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie: A family gathering mystery (Book one) by David Marshall Hunt is a mystery and psychological thriller novel with interesting secrets hidden in the memory-attic of Professor Daniel Jonson. It contains a mystery that begs an answer to, where is the best place to hide a family secret? Lost family and lost memories collide in this story set in the Pacific Northwest in the 1940's interrupted by war and continuing in the 1990's. The story features a twist on the family relationship theme of guilt and redemption.

It has been five decades since President Roosevelt responded to the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and followed up with Executive Order 9066, ordering the relocation and incarceration of over 70,000 Americans of Japanese heritage.

Shortly before the war, the Jonson’s adopted three orphans, one Chinese and two Japanese. The orphans attended their first family gathering Christmas of 1940. In December of 1941, extended family members came from Seattle and cities on the Pacific coast, gathering for the Christmas holidays at the family farm in the Spokane River Valley. There they would renew family ties and partake of Grandma Jonson’s fabulous cooking and sumptuous pies. Uncle Paul told the children scary stories and young Danny Jonson was his apprentice storyteller.

Fifty years have passed since Professor Daniel Jonson’s story telling uncle was killed in the war and extended family were scattered around the world. When his mother dies and the family hub is put up for sale at auction, Daniel is compelled to return home from a life of wandering and adventure.

There is a secret behind why his uncle insisted he promise to spread the story that goes beyond trespassers, but for the life of him, he can’t remember what it was. What Daniel does recall is that he failed to keep a promise to his favorite uncle, to find and reunite the extended family after the war. He struggles with fragments and guilt and needs the love and friendship of a brilliant and gorgeous red-haired woman to help him. Dr. Claire Parsons is a clinical psychologist and Daniel’s main squeeze. She comforts him over his loss and suggests a course of action to unlock his repressed memories. As they journey back to places, he dredges up from his childhood, his memory-attic yields both helpful and misleading clues he needs to follow to discover the family secret behind Uncle Paul’s story. If they can uncover the family secret, maybe Daniel can keep his fifty-year-old promise. Perhaps he’ll find his way home and restore his sense of family.