In The Rough — John McCarty

Eddy Peters returns stateside after two tours in Iraq, struggling with relationships, authority, and the haunting memory of his slain captain. He flees to the backwater town of Monte Rio along the Russian River in northern California for solitude and recovery. However, he is soon swept up in a bitter political battle. The locals are divided over a bond measure that would provide the tax money needed for the construction of a treatment plant. Some fear the inevitable invasion of bureaucratic agencies and developers. Others agree with their chamber president and a deep-pocket Bohemian, hopeful for a financial facelift of their decaying hamlet. Eddy bonds with a golf course superintendent, a masseuse, a bumbling pot grower and a defrocked priest to fight the powers to be. Quirky twists, fate and greed intervene to settle the matter.