The Scarlet Oak

Murder, Spies, and Spirits

By: Jerry Aylward

Narrated by: Frances Anderson

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Late on September 23, 2018, two 17-year-old high school sweethearts returning home from a celebratory birthday date are discovered dead. Their car found off the road, in a vacant horse pasture in front of an enormously old deciduous scarlet oak, on the lavish estate of J. Barrington Cook the fourth, a wealthy but secretive fourth-generation landowner.

Finn, a decorated combat veteran with 10 years as a hardened and dogged county homicide investigator, happens upon the recent yet unreported accident. His initial assessment of the fatal scene is simply a broken pasture fence, along with the lifeless teenagers, and a seemingly undamaged car, suggesting it was anything but an accident, if not a meticulously well-planned execution.

The detective’s suspicions aren’t shared by everyone, or anyone. An inebriated medical examiner refuses to classify the deaths until he has viewed both the toxicology and pathology findings, delaying the necessary and immediate investigation. Finn’s lieutenant also refuses to authorize an official murder investigation, sighting the lack of medical and scientific certainty. Not satisfied, Finn embarks on his own unofficial murder investigation where he learns the family home of his murdered (accidental death) male victim may have ties to a series of unexplained deaths dating back 238 years.

The home is also reputed to have an ever-present spirit of a beautiful American Revolutionary patriot, who has managed to keep secret her noble and resourceful involvement, though covert, in the war for liberty and independence from that very house.

Finn delves deeper into his investigation, unearthing detailed information from a storied and seemingly timeless witness, a source he's more than a little skeptical to trust. Mixing with the new details, he learns of a psychotic 18th-century British army officer seeking retaliation for the capture and undignified execution of British military intelligence officer Major John Andre, in his failed attempt to seize General George Washington’s strategic fortification on the Hudson River, along with the treasonous betrayal of Benedict Arnold.

Weighing his self-imposed lack of empathy against a die-hard commitment to a hero friend creates a point of no return decision for Finn, landing him mysteriously on the front doorstep of his murdered boy’s family home, only it's 1780. It’s here he meets the vivacious and living version of one of the original homeowner's three beautiful daughters, Sally Townsend. He’s immediately smitten. All the while trying to evade the ruthless British army's door to door search throughout the tiny hamlet of Oyster Bay for members of General Washington’s elusive Culper Spy Ring.

After solving the unexplained deaths associated with the Townsend's house, though severely wounded, Finn is reunited with his life in 2018, while his love interest remains mysteriously uncertain back in 1780.

Conflicted with reoccurring thoughts of an overlooked clue, suggesting someone may be still getting away with murder, lands Finn back at his crime scene, at the horse pasture of the estate's wealthy owner, with an ultimate show down under the scarlet oak.

©2022 Jerry Aylward (P)2022 Jerry Aylward