Faces of Villain

A hallucinatory and multifaceted novella, that uses rhyme and near rhyme, metaphor and surrealism to bring forth a story where each layer reveals an underlying tale of cognitive dissonance. A melding of two juxtaposed stories, we first meet Jack Trade. Rejecting his late father's desires for him to become a carpenter, Jack Trade becomes a thief instead. On more than one occasion, Trade is caught but always manages to escape. Although he is a thief, the townspeople grow to love him for his evasion of the law, even to his almost inevitable and inescapable end. In the second strand, John Teefer, a personification of Trade's consciousness, wakes up on an island. Teefer is rescued by a reclusive old man and meets other characters; each one representing different personifications of Jack Trade. As the adventure proceeds, Teefer slowly discovers his true identity. With deep subtext, Faces of Villain allows the reader to further understand the characters' mindscape by solving puzzles between chapters.