All In?... Beware the Cross Currents

The Commonwealth of Kentucky’s alcohol of choice, the sport of kings and power politics provide the combustible combination that embroils the Bluegrass State’s first family, the Wellingtons, in an expanding web of scandal involving sex, murder, finance and brushes with the underworld.   Set in 1983, former Governor and current bourbon distillery owner Bentley Wellington; coal baroness wife Abigail Prescott Wellington; and son Beauregard, who operates the family thoroughbred business, are central in turning What Are the Odds?... The Calculus of Coincidence and its sequel, All In?... Beware the Cross Currents into non-stop, cover-to-cover reads for fans of the thriller/suspense genre.

But the Wellingtons have company in making these works of fiction incredibly enticing. First is Thomas Jefferson Cutter III, a youthful Virginia horseman whose fateful meeting with his Kentucky-based peer leads to a dueling dance of equine elites.

Then there’s Gretchen Weiß Hauptmann, who’s about to make a decision on the future of the German powder metal parts company she founded some two decades earlier, unaware of the neo-Nazi plot to “relieve” her of the business “one way or another.” In an effort to buttress their efforts, the terrorist network with German-American ties focuses on the vulnerabilities of Bentley Wellington as a potential source of funds.

The intertwining stories of these three families – the Cutters of Leesburg, Virginia; the Wellingtons of Lexington, Kentucky, and the Hauptmanns of Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region – continue as summer turns to fall. TJ Cutter enjoys a meteoric rise in the world of thoroughbred horse racing, while Beauregard Wellington hatches a bold start-up bourbon venture in Ireland. Meanwhile, Gretchen Weiß Hauptmann’s narrow escape from a neo-Nazi terrorist group results in starting a new life in Canada under an assumed name. While TJ, Beau and Gretchen may be “all in” on the choices they make, the cross currents created by their decisions are likely to cause unforeseen consequences for those in their immediate circles.