Montana Midnight

David Emil Henderson, author of the thriller "Escape!", presents a novel of adventure and environmental conflicts in Jackpine, Montana, circa 1974, when "everything changed -- except Montana."

Against a background of national unrest, a young Vietnam veteran returns home to Jackpine, MT, only to encounter new battles when the City Council appoints Nathan Chambers as the new mayor.

The town is suffering economic doldrums; Nathan's beautiful wife Valerie is expecting their first child; and his best friend is urging Nathan to support a militant environmental campaign against corporate kingpins who have chosen to exploit quiet Jackpine as "an over-developed playground for the rich."

"My idea of a literary novel may not be the same as critics and others," the author says. "But this is one of those character-driven tales that doesn't fall into the popular genres. I call it 'Montana Midnight' because it suggests that at any prior time in its history, this state hadn't quite made it to the next day. It's like all the hands on all the clocks were raised straight up in surrender to the status quo... until powerful factions came to make war, not love." That's when everyone stops and listens for the thunder, he says.

Henderson adds, "The pressure for change forces the entire community to assess where it wants to go. And for a young man involved in politics for the first time, it's a very dangerous situation. It progresses from a Learjet to a Fire and to a Storm -- the three parts of the novel. It's ending came as much a surprise to me as it did for most readers."

Also surprising to some readers are the parallels between 1974 in Montana and the rest of the nation today.

Henderson based this story on his former experiences as a newspaper publisher in the nation's fourth largest state.