The Wisdom of Water

Book excerpt: In Karen Hood-Caddy’s third inspiring novel featuring environmentalist heroine Jessie Dearborn, Jessie is concerned about the health of the water in her northern town. Harley, Jessie’s Ojibway partner, declares he wants to move further north to where the real wilderness is. She is torn between her allegiance to Harley and her devotion to the land. The Guerrilla Grannies, a group of feisty seniors, start a door-to-door campaign to raise environmental awareness. Trouble erupts when Jessie and Elfy, one of the more cantankerous seniors, get into a scrap with a local hockey hero and end up getting arrested. But this is also the story of Dan Goreman, whose life is in disarray from a bitter divorce. He decides to to accept a job his father has arranged for him at a water-treatment plant near Jessie’s home town. Dan falls in love with Meagan, whose family owns a resort in the area. Dan becomes very attached to Meagan’s six year-old son, but she is concerned about Dan’s unresolved past and asks him to see a therapist. Begrudgingly, Dan agrees and meets Jessie, who challenges him to be more truthful about his past. When the resort’s sewage lagoons burst and some of the waste gets into the town’s water, Dan makes a fatal mistake that could kill someone that he loves. Now Jessie has many more problems to solve in her quest to save Elfy from a jail term, help protect the lands and lakes which she loves and begin to understand the patterns in her own life.