My Backyard Is Murder

Frank and Isabel lived on their one-acre "little piece of heaven" for years, in the company of their three dogs, three cats, and abundant wildlife. Life, beneath the sheltering arms of dozens of 100-foot-tall trees-cedar, spruce, fir, and hemlock-changes when the forest south of their home is razed, and the developer deliberately severs the holding roots of five of Frank and Isabel's trees. Those five trees fall in a windstorm, crushing their shed, shattering the roof of their home, and killing their beloved Flat-Coated Retriever, Aria. Their "little piece of heaven" becomes hell. Turning to the authorities for help, Frank and Isabel hope against hope that the developer, or the law, or the agencies of justice will make some effort to make them whole-if that is even possible. It's a vain hope. Ultimately, they lose faith that the law and the agencies of justice are willing or able to act morally and ethically. This is the story about what happened next-about a very different and unexpected path to justice than either Frank or Isabel would have preferred. It's a story told alternately by Frank, Isabel's husband, and Detective Jimmy Brautigan, the man attempting to solve three seemingly related murders-murders that wouldn't have happened if the developer, or the city planner, or the law hadn't been entirely indifferent to Frank and Isabel's tragedy. As Frank tells the reader, "We didn't take the law into our own hands. No, we took justice into our own hands." This is a story about justice restored.