North of Foothill

Shots ring out from behind the stage of a Cucamonga music club on a spring night in 1974. Off-duty San Bernardino County Homicide Investigator, Jimmy Sommes, just there to hear some country rock, finds himself running toward danger. Behind the club, tires squeal as Sommes catches a quick glimpse of a crazed skinhead and his getaway driver making their escape, leaving two dead bodies behind.

As the murder case moves east to Barstow and its vast surrounding desert, it spirals into more crimes, complicated by two young men from North Carolina who have perilously wandered into the mayhem. All the while, Sommes misses his reporter girlfriend, Allie, who is chasing the Patricia Hearst kidnapping story. Struggling to keep his life – and his drinking – under control, Sommes must somehow stem the tide of violence and still manage to find his way home; just north of Foothill.

Author Biography

Orlando Davidson graduated from Claremont Men’s (now McKenna) College and UCLA School of Law in the 1970’s and headed west to the Hawaiian Islands. After a thirty-five year career in Hawaii working as an attorney, planner, lobbyist, and public official, Orlando relocated to western North Carolina and began to write fiction. Baseline Road is his first novel, and was shaped by his experiences during the Kent State protest days. He now resides in Portland, Oregon.