Summer of 77

Red Wing, Minnesota. June 10, 1977. The last day of school. The first night of summer.

Todd Asher has everything a senior could want: a Chevy Nova, a new boom box, two kegs from the liquor store, and the perfect place to party. A hidden cave on the back side of Barn Bluff, high above the Mississippi, where nobody in town can see the fire or hear the music.

His friends are coming up to celebrate. Cindy, his girlfriend. Paula, the girl he isn't supposed to be looking at. Dave, hauling firewood in his mom's pickup. Jim, with a sledgehammer from his dad's truck and a hunch that there's more cave behind the back wall.

And one more guest nobody really invited: quiet, heavyset Alex Parker, carrying a pan of homemade brownies and every cruel word the class of '77 ever said.

When the wall comes down, the boys find a hidden chamber, tall as a church, and a black drop straight down to the river. By Monday, divers are searching the channel below the bluff. Detective Sergeant Lyle Brekke, twenty-six years on the Red Wing force, is asking questions nobody wants to answer. And the whole town is about to learn that some kids don't forget.

Some kids carry grudges. Alex Parker kept a list.

Packed with Camels and Zippos, AC/DC cassettes, CB slang and small-town secrets, Summer of 77 is a fast, grounded horror story set among the real bluffs and caves of Red Wing, Minnesota. It ends with an author's note on the true places behind the story, and on the painted rocks JR Macho has hidden around town for readers to find.