Little Victories, Small Defeats Our world is fully capable of taking an innocent, sensitive, intelligent young man and through death, hypocrisy, retribution and remorse turn him into a drifting, aimless shell of what he might have been. That this happens to James Branaugh is not a story in itself. That James can find his way back from a useless existence, find and give lasting love, and muster the will to redeem his place in society while battling for his life, is a story. That tale comprises the theme of this book. James, the central character, hails from a small farm in the back country of West Virginia. Before his life can really begin, he is left spiritually destitute through the death of his wife and daughter at the hands of a small time drug dealer, and morally adrift by his own redress of the crime. The next several decades of idle wander brings him full circle to his boyhood home. This return is made to finally embrace peace and live his remaining years amid the soothing comfort of the ancestral farm. Before any solace is found, James finds himself in the middle of an old and on-going Machiavellian plot to acquire or control all lands in the immediate area including his own. The ever escalating war of greed is delivered to his doorstep by none other than a US Senator and County Sheriff. Thankfully, James does not have to fight alone, and acquires fellow soldiers in the form of a crippled lawyer, half crazy woodsman, renegade FBI agent and a two-fisted lover. The battles rage from Washington townhouses to high pasture barns and include some decidedly undesirables in hand-to-hand fighting. Someone once said that “all real stories end in death”. Death is no stranger to the characters in this archetypical yarn of good versus evil. Set among bucolic hills, the rustic normalcy of country life serves as counterpoint to the chaotic appeal of contemporary living. The charm of simplicity stands in stark contrast to the narcotic of progress. This blend of contradictory desires and lifestyles forms the backdrop for a reflection on greed gone mad. That James can succeed is given. Whether he does and how he goes about it is the story.