In “Carrying Kerrie,” we revisit Venice Webb as he reconnects with his ex-wife, Kerrie, who suffers from a terminal illness and wants Venice to help her locate her daughter, Mandy, from whom she has been estranged for over a decade. This quest puts all of Venice's investigative instincts to the test and underlying the search is the gnawing question: is Mandy my daughter?In "Carrying Kerrie", Steve Sporleder explores a father's feelings for and about the daughter he might have had. Venice Webb, a detective we first meet in Sporleder's earlier book, A Fouled Nest, travels to the Pacific Northwest to reconnect with his ex-wife, Kerrie, who suffers from a terminal illness and wants Venice to help her locate her daughter, Mandy, from whom she has been estranged for over a decade. This quest puts all of Venice's investigative instincts to the test and underlying the search is his gnawing question: is Mandy my daughter? "Carrying Kerrie" can be a valuable support for any caring man who discovers that he may have fathered a child years earlier and wants to reclaim the father within himself. The parent he might have been or the father he could become.

Cletus Rossiter is concerned about his sleep apnea and records himself while sleeping, but gets far more than he bargained for when strange voices show up in the recordings, including his own voice speaking German, a language he doesn’t know. Is he dreaming or is he is dealing with ghosts from the historic past?In “Conversations with Clete,” Cletus Rossiter, a man in his mid-sixties, is concerned about his snoring and sleep apnea, and records himself while sleeping in order to find out how bad his apnea is. But he gets far more than he bargained for when strange voices show up in the recordings and he even hears himself speaking German, a language he doesn’t know. He encounters Kruger, a Nazi soldier; Zeralda, a widow from the 1880s, and a club boxer, Kid Pierpont. Clete is left to wonder if these are dreams or if he is dealing with ghosts from the historic past?