The last two years we have conducted the annual Bremer Family Crappie Tournament while on the annual Bremer Family Fishing Trip in July. All five boats of participants take off from the docks simultaneously at the sound of official tournament air horn. Last year the loving husband won by a landslide. This year it was touch and go. As brother Gordy weighed the crappie entries with the official tournament scale, Evelyn (the loving mother) suspected that she had a major contender. Being the modest and humble woman that she is, she secretly hoped that someone else would win the contest. But, alas, she took first place. Mother doesn’t like to draw attention to herself or boast of her fishing prowess. Still, when we arrived back in Luverne five days later it seemed as if the whole town knew she had won the crappie tournament. At the grocery store, a library patron yelled across the parking lot, "Hey, I hear your mom won the crappie tournament." The next day in church, at least half the congregational members said, "Good morning, I hear your mother won the crappie tournament this year." Could it be that my mother, the essence of modesty and selflessness, had called ahead to boast of her fishing escapades? I half expected a parade in her honor. Suddenly, it came to me. I called Luverne. I must have released the crappie tournament results. And, frankly, I was very relieved to know that mother’s virtue remained untarnished. Each year on vacation I try to slip a brand new bestseller out of the library before anyone else can check it out. Usually I’m the last person in Rock County that gets to read the hot books. This year I got away with "Clear and Convincing Proof" by Kate Wilhelm. The Kelso/McIvey rehab center is a place of hope and healing for its patients — and for the dedicated staff who volunteer there. For lonely newcomer Erica Castle, it's a place to make new friends. For brilliant physical therapist Darren Halvord, it’s a chance to showcase his unusual gift. For beautiful Annie McIvey it's a sanctuary from a cruel husband. A brilliant surgeon, a man whose ego rivals his skill with a scalpel, David McIvey now has controlling shares in what has always been a non-profit clinic. His plan to close the clinic and replace it with a massive new surgery center — with himself at the helm — means that the rehab center, with all its good work and good people, will be forced to close its doors. Since he is poised to desecrate the dreams of so many, it's not surprising that somebody dares to stop him in cold blood. When David McIvey is murdered outside the clinic's doors early one morning, Oregon attorney Barbara Holloway, once again uses her razor-sharp instincts and take-no-prisoners attitude to create a defense for the two members of the clinic accused of his murder. Also new on the shelf is Tom Clancy’s "The Teeth of the Tiger." In a nondescript office building in suburban Maryland, the firm Hendley Associates does a profitable business in stocks, bonds, and international currencies, but its true mission is quite different: to identify and locate terrorist threats, and then deal with them, in whatever manner necessary. Established with the knowledge of Pres. John Patrick Ryan, "the Campus" is always on the lookout for promising new talent, and a young man is about to cross its radar — Jack Ryan Jr. Jack was raised on intrigue. As his father moved through the ranks of the CIA and then into the White House, Jack received a life course in the world and the way it operates from agents, Secret Service men, and black ops specialists. He wants to put it all to work now, but when he knocks on the front door of "the Campus," he finds that nothing has prepared him for what he is about to encounter. For it is indeed a different world out there, and in here ... and it is about to become far more dangerous.
