To View The Valley by Bruce Benzel
One town. Two families. Ten lives locked on a deadly course for disaster… For when the fine line between romance and revenge is crossed, murder and mayhem are soon destined to follow! The year is 1905, and the small, idyllic town of Lune Du Lac, Wisconsin is about to be rocked to the very core…
One town.
Two families.
Ten lives locked on a deadly course for disaster…
For when the fine line between romance and revenge is crossed, murder and mayhem are soon destined to follow!
The year is 1905, and the small, idyllic town of Lune Du Lac, Wisconsin is about to be rocked to the very core of its socially accepted existence…
When, sickened by the hold big city debauchery has on her family, Ida Bloomfield blackmails her philandering husband into relocating them all from Milwaukee’s dark influence, to the bright promise of a new start in this new town. With their two grown, fraternal twin sons, Albie and Ethan, in tow, Ida is sure life there will be better for them. However, unbeknownst to Ida, her husband, Joseph Bloomfield (corrupt banker and sexual deviant) is unwilling to relinquish the strange relationship he has with his mistress, Annabelle Wainright—and so cleverly he devises an elaborate ruse to move Annabelle along with them. Hiding her in plain sight under the adopted guise of Mrs. Beverly Asher, coal mining heiress/prospective bank depositor, Joseph Bloomfield is intent on keeping their affair alive at all costs.
Meanwhile, Ethan Bloomfield, a confident, scholarly young man, unashamed of his homosexuality, meets naïve, nineteen-year-old Royal Easterly—a neighbor from across the street—and is instantly attracted to him. Royal, eldest of the three Easterly children, and a talented aspiring artist, is also immediately taken by Ethan and succumbs quickly to his charms. With romance burgeoning, things look hopeful—that is until Ethan’s undisclosed past returns to jeopardize their newfound happiness forever.
In turn, Ethan’s twin brother, Albie, a notorious, unabashed playboy, falls helplessly in love with Nina Fowler. A girl of intoxicating beauty, Nina possesses both a keen intellect and a questionable reputation. Desperate to save her father’s failing lumber business, Nina seduces Albie into helping her map out a massive corporate expansion—the likes of which can only be accomplished through a hefty cash investment from Albie’s duplicitous father; a man never to be trusted.
Amidst all this, Royal’s younger sister, Honoria, a determined, but misguided woman driven solely by societal acceptance and the need to emerge at last from her sainted mother’s long-cast shadow, is about to be married to recent medical school graduate, Dr. Brodie Wingate. A product of her town’s close-minded bigotry, Honoria is a racist homophobe. She despises not only her family’s newest neighbors—the Bloomfields, Lune Du Lac’s first Jewish family—but also her brother, Royal, for being a “Nancy.” Unsure as to why their father, Malcolm, so constantly and flagrantly defends his son’s obvious perversion, slowly Honoria pieces together a decades-old mystery of shocking proportions.
Finally, as hundreds gather at Honoria’s wedding reception for the unprecedented social event of the season, a disillusioned woman, one mad with jealousy and hell-bent on revenge, is about to set in motion a deadly series of events that will ultimately change all their lives forever…
Because, as disaster strikes, only time will tell who survives … and who does not.
” An exciting, fun, suspenseful and romantic read!”
Five Star Review on Amazon By pbsguy
This is an exciting story of lives that cross in a very dramatic and suspenseful way. The characters are extremely well drawn and I found that once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. Just when I thought I knew the next twist, there was another one just around the corner. Definitely not your average plot and because of that it kept me interested every step of the way. Although it resolves itself in the end, I still feel I want more. The connection between Ethan and Royal is beautiful, but is the evil old Bloomfield really dead. I hope there is a second book, I just feel he’s out there lurking somewhere.
About the Author
Bruce Benzel is an acclaimed Writer, Poet, Lyricist, Life Commentator, and LGBT Advocate. And while although most novelists prefer to work in a single genre (romance or horror, for example), Bruce prefers to simply tell stores; where they end up being categorized is a decision that can only be finalized upon each book’s completion.
Simply put, Bruce says: “For me, it’s never the type of story, but the idea … and sometimes that comes in the form of a plot, or a character name, or merely an opening sentence. I never know what each book will truly be about, until I get into it. But once I do, my characters become very real to me, and often take me on a roller coaster ride of an adventure–and that’s just how I like it. I want to be as surprised as my readers.”