Joseph Gary Crance's "The Last Coon Hunter" Book
Joseph Gary Crance's "The Last Coon Hunter" Book is the first novel in the Ryland Creek Saga. This 251 page softcover book was written in 2017. It was a simpler time as widower Jacob Ernst struggles to raise his two young sons, Nathan and Mead, on their modest farm. They've grown up listening to the nighttime songs of hounds in the pursuit of the wily ringtail. Chasing raccoon through darkened hills, Jacob teaches his sons the legends of their hometown and a deep respect for all woodland creatures. Hunting and the lessons taught keep the Ernst family together. And the brothers bond with their dogs -- loyal to one another until the end. For this is Painted Post -- a storied place where the lessons of life, love, and death play out beneath its mighty oaks. But worlds collide. Evil follows the Ernst family and their hounds into these mystical hills. The scourge of the illegal drug trade, coupled with the treachery of one of their own, leads to an inevitable showdown. Some will learn that not all of Painted Post's vivid tales are pure legend, and this rugged woodland will wield its own brutal justice. For in the darkest hollows, solid bonds are forged. Joseph Gary Crance was born in upstate New York near his hometown of Painted Post. The author spent hundreds of nights with his father, a New York State Forest Ranger, and their dogs chasing raccoon through the hills bounding this scenic land.
After a career in the U.S. Air Force, he returned to Painted Post with his family -- back to the woodland hollows of his youth to again listen to the nighttime songs of hounds in the pursuit of the wily ringtail. Admittedly, the author does not climb these unchanging hills as fast as he once did. But that's okay. For the hounds and the oaks have a great deal of patience.
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