Crestwood Heights — Christopher Hyde

Poor Kelly Rhine, her heart leads her mind while her instincts tell her otherwise. Big trouble ensues. She is a struggling New York City graphic artist who gets what any artist would wish for-a windfall. Her uncle Nathan Sommerville leaves his entire estate to her. She gets a beautiful house, an exotic car and a movie theater. The only problem, as she soon finds out, is that her inheritance is in the town of Crestwood Heights, North Carolina. At first the planned community looks idyllic but the motto of the town "The Future is Now" begins to ring Big Brother alarm bells. Ignoring her instincts she decides to stay on as a resident, lead the peaceful life, and try to run a repertory theater. Soon events take a turn and what she discovers is bone chilling. She meets the well connected power brokers who run the town but something about them rubs her the wrong way. Instead she befriends Robin Spenser, a gay ex-marine, owner of the local coffee shop, Aunt Bea's Sweet Temptations. At the same time she begins a romantic relationship with Dr. Stephen Hardy, the town's most eligible bachelor. Together she and Robin, and later 12 year old Lizbeth, Dr. Hardy's niece, follow clues left by her uncle and Hugh Trask, the editor of the local newspaper, the Illuminator. As her late uncle described it in a letter, it was the stuff of nightmares. If they don't discover the nightmare, they won't be able to stop a force so evil, that basic procreation as we have know it since time began will become a thing of the past. Crestwood Heights, a town where science, medicine and statistics wield the future.