The Wounded

“The Wounded” is the second book of Townsend’s The Long War Series. Ricky Belisle travels across the south and west of America, a minor league baseball player, seeking redemption before his family, his people, his Marie Jeanne. It is 1960, the nuclear age. His forebears far into the mists of time––father, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and beyond––had been warriors, which the world no longer needs. He encounters temptation and corruption and injustice, a south of explosive rage and hypocrisy. Injury and death lurk under the friendly grin. Safety resides within the baseball stadium; its rules, if not just, are firm and clear. He suffers a concussion on a run down between third base and home plate.

Marie Jeanne finds him on a Colorado mountain, recovering, hardened. Indifferent nature tests them, their love, their worth, yet again.