Cletus Efferding has everything going for him—a beautiful fiancée, a successful business, dinners at the Cedar Rapids Country Club, and a luxurious penthouse condo awaiting his arrival. There's just one problem. Cletus has difficulties with the truth and his deceptions catch up with him.
With his life in shambles, a reluctant Cletus undertakes a mission to rescue the young man responsible for his downfall and return him unharmed to the arms of a loving sister. Gone are the days of lunches with bank presidents and nights with his beautiful girlfriend as Cletus finds himself in the New Mexican desert sharing brown rice with delusional cult members.
Cut off from the outside world, Clete discovers a community where nothing is as it appears to be, followers are virtual prisoners, and those seen as threats to a paranoid leadership disappear. His world grows steadily smaller until he discovers the true meaning of life—survival.
Kind words for the first book in the Cletus Efferding series …
Sins of Intent is a worthy debut, and I will definitely be climbing back into Roeder’s Time Machine for Cletus’s next adventure. — Dennis Green, Author of The Traveler Chronicles.
Summary
A work of fiction set in the early 1980s. The fifty-year-old owner of a successful men's clothing shop sees his world fall apart when a twenty-year accumulation of lies and self-deception blows up in his face. With little left to lose, he goes undercover on a mission to rescue a disturbed young man from the clutches of a cult that preaches the simple life but is obsessed with money and control. To accomplish the task, Cletus Efferding must leave his beloved town of Cedar Rapids, journey to backwater Puerta de Luna, New Mexico, and invade a penal colony in the South Dakota boondocks.
Availability
Sins of Deception is available at Amazon.com in paperbound and e-book format. If you prefer, your favorite bookstore will be willing to order a copy for you. The third of the Cletus Efferding novels, it is published by Dusty Typewriter Press, an imprint of its parent entity, Broken Typewriter Press.
Contact the author:
To contact the author, remove the "NoSpamPlease." from the email address: r.roeder@NoSpamPlease.mchsi.com
Copyright ©2023 by Randy Roeder.