Merry'S Grotto

Sometimes the beauty of nature is something more than what we see with our eyes. There are senses that bring to light the wonders unknown to so many people, senses a privileged few alone are able to utilize that give added definition to concepts such as peace, beauty, and security. Such is how Merry Royster, an autistic young woman living with her sister in rural Georgia, views the secluded lake hidden in the woods behind her home. What to others would be a typical southern wetlands is seen by Merry as something special, what she refers to as her private grotto. The lakeside grotto has become her refuge, her sanctuary from an uncaring world, where she shares its magical wonder with her special friend, Samuel. Merry alone is granted access to Samuel's home among the pines, for Merry alone can appreciate what the grotto represents and the implications if it is ever disturbed in any way. When Jarod Royster, her estranged cousin from the city, returns to his hometown of Elkington to turn the woods protecting Merry's grotto into a modern, multi-usage development that will shatter the peace and beauty she has come to love, he sets into motion a series of events that shock and terrify the residents of Elkington. People begin to disappear - repeating a pattern begun in the Eighteenth Century when the original town settlement was decimated by something unknown in the forest - and Merry's sister, Bethany, is plunged into the middle of a police investigation to locate the perpetrator, uncomfortably aware that her sister might well have played a role in the recent spate of disappearances. With Merry's fantasized image of the grotto butting against the harsh reality of death and mayhem in Elkington, it is left to Bethany to manage her cousin's ambitions and the shady people supporting him while protecting her sister from a fate that seems certain to claim her. In Merry's Grotto, Frank LoProto introduces us to a world where beauty and serenity cloak something mysterious with the potential to unleash the devastating power of nature's darker side. Bethany Royster is forced to confront not only her younger sister's determined link to her private haven in the woods, but she must also contend with the scheming Jarod as he works to turn the grotto into something that is certain to invite disaster on the entire population of Elkington. Only by solving the mystery of Merry's grotto and the enigmatic Samuel will Bethany be able to protect Merry from her own fiercely guarded version of reality, while simultaneously battling the encroachment of the authorities and Jarod's unrelenting effort to scar the grotto with the fruits of his greed-driven desires.

• | Author: Frank LoProto
• | Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: Aug 07, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 428 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1718824068
• | ISBN-13: 9781718824065