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Simon Shands

Simon and Cassie
Book Eight: The Chief
While the Allard boys return from fishing, Simon Shands, the clean cut but equally nefarious, son of the late Fillmore P. Shakley aka Millard P. Shands, the late master of all things evil, is awakening. Living in the master suite of Detroit’s plush Russell House, Simon has found a useful mistress in Cassie Littlefield, a poor girl turned high class hooker. Together they will control the crime industry of the emerging motor city while hobnobbing with the rich, famous, and respectable high society of Detroit. Read More 
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Book Eight: The Chief, on the farm

On the farm
Book Eight: The Chief, opens on two brothers fishing and playing on their father’s turn-of-the-century Lake St. Clair farm. Edmund Allard, called Diddy, has endured a number of sisters waiting for his much younger brother, Abe. As they frolic and mature on their father’s farm in the rapidly growing town of Grosse Pointe, neither could predict the twists fate holds in store for them. Read More 
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South Macomb College lecture

Don't miss it
A Lesson in French-Canadian Detroit History
Monday, April 25 1:00-3:00
Location: UC1-104 Faculty: Wilmont Kreis, M.D.
Take a journey through Detroit’s history…from Cadillac to Kilpatrick, the fur trade to the American Revolution, the fire of 1805 followed by the work of Woodward and Gabriel Richard. In this class led by a local author and historian, learn interesting facts and little-known trivia about the area’s involvement with the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, Prohibition, Depression, the automobile industry, and two World Wars. There may even be prizes for the trivia experts among the SOAR participants. Orthopedic surgeon Wilmont Kreis, M.D., is a lifelong resident and student of the Detroit River Region. He has authored ten historical novels, as well as three mystery thrillers about health care fraud: The Corridor, set in Detroit’s Cass Corridor; The Pain Doc about pain clinics and prescription drug abuse; and The Labyrinth focusing on home health care fraud. Kreis and his wife, Susan, a health care attorney, live in Port Huron. Read More 
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Book Eight: The Chief

THE ALLARDS BOOK EIGHT: THE CHIEF
I guess it’s time to leave THE WITCH and the nineteenth century behind and enter the twentieth. Here is the trailer:
At the turn of the 20th Century, Moses Allard’s first born son, Diddy, dies, but not before leaving a lifelong impression on his young brother, Abe, who grows up preferring fishing, duck hunting and ice boats to the family farm. Marrying Julia Forton from another early French farming family, Abe joins the police at the onset of WWI where he cuts his teeth on the early days of Prohibition and Detroit’s famous Purple Gang.
Abe’s only child, Gladys, is raised by a father who desperately longs for a son in the lakeside farming community as it enters the age of suburbia. Marrying and starting her own family, Gladys lives in an exciting era encompassing Prohibition, the Great Depression, two world wars, and the emergence of Detroit as the Motor City.
The last in a series of eight historical novels, The Chief continues to bring history to life through the eyes of one family and to be for French-Canadians what Roots is for African-Americans, but readers need not have French-Canadian heritage or be from Detroit to love these books. Read More 
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Simon Shands

Simon
Simon Shands:
With the sudden death of the evil Fillmore P. Shakely aka Millard P. Shands, his much cleaner and respectable appearing son, Simon, takes over the crime empire turning it into a outwardly legitimate business. It is Simon and his less respectable colleagues who will lead the Shakely/Shands crime empire into the twentieth century and Book Eight, The Chief Read More 
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Mount Clemens library presentation

This Saturday (April 09, 2016) I will be speaking at the French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan (FCHSM) meeting. The topic is FINDING FRANCOIS: A GUIDE TO TRACING YOUR ROOTS IN FRANCE. It begins at 11:00 AM and guests are welcome. Read More 
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Doc Rivard

Ol' Doc
Doc Rivard:
Old Doc is a combination philosopher, realist, historian, healer, and drunk. He is also fictitious and as mentioned many times, not related to any of the other legions of French-Canadian Rivards. Doc is always around to save a life, stave off a plague, perform a new procedure (Caesarian section), comfort a friend or patients loved one and close the bar. He has also saved me during dry times in my writing. Read More 
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