Stream of Conscience

Environmental protection and agricultural production clash when an arboretum in a small, rural town proposes a stream restoration project. A seemingly routine evaluation by landscape architect Luke McAllister turns life-threatening when he and a colleague discover a skull. McAllister and Special Agent Kelly Atkins, with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, collaborate to investigate two murders, separated by twenty-five years, which threaten the project. In addition to contending with a killer willing to go to any length to protect secrets, the pair must also confront their respective emotional challenges from the past.

Stream of Conscience is a thriller that portrays the delicate balance between agricultural production and environmental protection set against the backdrop of a stream restoration. Patterns of human behavior, shaped by past experience, merge with landscape evolution to illustrate the corresponding process of achieving equilibrium and growth. Steadfast rural values, viewed through a family mired in grief, guilt, and greed, struggle against the influence of society's evolving environmental ethic. Stream of Conscience follows the twists and turns of family deceptions and lies to ultimately find the truth as the stream restoration project moves into full swing.

Rick Davis earned a masters degree in Landscape Architecture from Kansas State University. He was employed as an Environmental Planning Consultant for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment - Watershed Management Section and was a watershed planner for the Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams. He currently resides in Topeka, Kansas, with his wife.