So Trust Me: Four Decades of Love and Deceit

So Trust Me is a novel-length work, set in and around Northern California. Four stories weave a theme of interpersonal deception across four time frames: 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990. The Willamette Kid portrays a harrowing year in the life of John McDonough, a former championship fencer, who believes that lying to everyone close to him is his only way to avoid being forced to leave San Francisco and join the family business. Winnemucca Rose describes the sex and dope-laden Idaho fishing trip of Brian and Susan McAlpin, as well as the mind games they play on two friends, Phil and Marc. Married Sex tells of Steve Parker and Carrie Henson, whose differing reasons for sharing an overnight trip to Mendocino lead to absurd and painful consequences. In Friends Like That, Roy and Cora spend a two-week summer vacation in Nevada City house-sitting for the inexplicably fastidious Spence, a man who has gone to great lengths to cover up his past.