Ambush Road

by C.W. Schutter

Golden Scroll Finalist 2015 Novel of the Year, Awards presented July 2015

Ambush Road on Mount Tantalus is a mystical place hiding secrets that destroy lives. In the summer of 1965, fourteen-year-old Didi Nakaoka’s life changes forever when she moves to the rainforest in the middle of Honolulu. Shadows of the past reach into the present shattering her childhood, and shoving her into realities she’s emotionally unprepared for. As she and her two best friends, Benny and Milo, explore the rainforest along with urban legends like the lady with no face and menehune marches, superstition merges with reality. Didi discovers she cannot hide from the ugly truths and consequences of evil and hate.

Didi’s first love, Benny, is a shy, awkward, handsome sixteen-year-old. His superstar athlete older brother and their dad, bully him. Unable to deal with life, his agoraphobic mom lives in a tool shed.

Didi admires sixteen-year-old Milo who lives up the street. The sexy, beautiful, and bold free spirit appears unafraid of crossing moral and legal lines. Until crossing the line leads all three of them to a dangerous point of no return.

Amidst a backdrop of multi-ethnic superstition, Didi is faced with dark truths at a time when revolt simmered among an entire generation of teenagers and young adults who wanted to find themselves and their own truth. Didi wonders if she can emotionally survive the world she has been cruelly thrust into.