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The Last Tether of Jerry Blanchard
Robert Zeid, author
For Jerry Blanchard, a celebrity food critic who once said “food speaks to him like no other” finds out just how true that is. As he savors a sultana raisin, a sublime vision of a Sacramento vineyard is horrifically transformed by a woman’s brutal murder. And when his dying wife’s spirit appears and says, “Find her,” her statement is as much puzzlement as a directive.
Consumed by grief, guilt, and shame in the wake of Ginny’s death, he is haunted by visions of her as well as dark deeds by those who prepared the food. His appearance as a judge at the Monterey in the Morning Food & Wine festival descends into a mortifying spectacle as he reveals a litany of their long-forgotten crimes. His sanity is questioned and his past is cruelly dissected online. When others doubt his connection to reality, he sets out to answer the question and prove to himself that Ginny’s visits – and the woman’s murder – are not phantasms. Finding the truth takes on new urgency.
Jerry’s quest to confirm her murder becomes his sole lifeline back to sanity and finding redemption but he pulls on a thread that threatens to unravel one of the largest human trafficking rings in the US. When they set their sights on stopping him, they soon discover the most dangerous person in the world is someone with nothing left to lose.