Murder and Nowata don’t belong in the same sentence. Nothing ever happens in Nowata, certainly not murder!

Pete stumbles into the only bar in the little, rural town of Nowata early on a Sunday night when the weekend is winding down. He is cut up and bleeding and tells a terrifying story of his older step-son’s explosion into murdering insanity. The boy, Aaron, has killed his mother and little brother and tried to kill his step-father. Although Pete was wounded in the battle with Aaron, he managed to escape and the insane boy has run off into the woods that surround the town. The wounded man is put up in the local motel and is attended to by a doctor.

Everyone is horrified, and the local deputy sheriff arms the men in the tavern and sends them out to find Aaron. The County Sheriff is notified and the sheriff calls in the State Criminal Investigation Bureau, and other Highway Patrol units descend on Nowata.

As this night of terror inexorably moves on to daylight, the nightmare builds. There are other killings and the savagely slaughtered victims begin to begin to pile up. The authorities receive information from an unusual source that leads them to think they may be chasing the wrong man. The night ends with a desperation confrontation between good and evil but there is a glimmer of hope when daylight comes through the trees.

This is a story that is a lit fuse to a keg of dynamite. The match is set to the fuse in the opening section and the fuse burns quickly through the night, pulling the listener along through twists and turns until that final explosion.