When a lightning strike shatters Ollie Buckmeyer's world, it leaves him with a strange new gift-and uncanny drawings that reveal a mystery no one can explain.
Before the accident, Ollie had friends, a quick wit, and a carefree life on one of the last cattle ranches in Southern California. Now that world is gone.
Though he looks like the same old Ollie, his family mourns, his friends drift away, and the girl he cares about has moved on. Even the simplest conversations are now impossible.
But the lightning strike leaves Ollie with something extraordinary.
Suddenly he can see the world with uncanny clarity-remembering every detail and recreating it in drawings of startling precision. His sketches reveal hidden places...and clues to a mystery that has haunted the Buckmeyer ranch for more than a century-a buried fortune generations have searched for-and never found.
As Ollie's strange new talent begins pointing the way, his family must decide whether to follow the clues-or leave the past buried where it belongs.
Praised by Publishers Weekly as "fast-paced and heart-rending," Ollie Come Free is a moving and suspenseful novel about family, resilience, and the unexpected gifts hidden within tragedy.
Praise for Ollie Come Free
"When 11-year-old Ollie Buckmeyer is struck by lightning at a Little League game in 1991, what ensues is a series of fast-paced, heart-rending vignettes about a family trying to hold itself together despite complicated circumstances." - Publishers Weekly
"A rewarding page-turner." - Foreword Clarion Reviews
"A truly original cast of characters." - BlueInk Reviews
"Sensitive...engaging...a grounded exploration of recovery, resentment, and redemption." - BookLife Reviews