Strike, Stay Your Hand

Under the critical eyes of the Saint of Creek's Ridge, three men struggle for purpose in a world built upon their own misdeeds.Johannes Metternich has been living off the grid for so long that his friends assumed him dead. When he turns up in Creek's Ridge, he cannot answer questions about his past-or perhaps he is just unwilling. The town welcomes him with open arms anyway, affording him plenty of distractions from the nightmares that torment his sleep. To move on with his life, he must reconnect with an old friend. But before that can happen, they will both have to dig up the painful truths about what brought them to Creek's Ridge.While the residents attempt to help Johannes find his footing, they are also caught up in the town's mysterious history. Founded as a place for people to heal from the hardships of the frontier, Creek's Ridge has long been a haven for those on the fringes of society. The town has attracted people for over a century with its strong sense of community and peaceful isolation. Its noble beginnings still linger, but so do traces of its fraught history, including the infamous Native American raids that almost decimated the settlement and the misunderstood Saint who saved it.Strike, Stay Your Hand explores the nature of mentorship, freedom, and confrontation through the interwoven stories of Johannes and the founders-a rogue missionary and a notorious Shawnee prophet. Though the three men undergo vastly different journeys, they all wind up in Creek's Ridge, haunted by their pasts and dependent upon a woman named Saint Josephine. However, the Saint of Creek's Ridge may not be who they think she is...