Author Description

When Charles Thurston fi nds himself alone in the world after the death of his father-a banker/philanthropist-and later his cold, controlling mother-Charles discovers, to his dismay, that he is woefully unprepared for entering the wider world. Sheltered by 20 years of servitude to his mother, Charles is aimless and indecisive, and he reluctantly accedes to his mother's prearranged plan to enroll as a student at tiny Riverford College in northern Vermont. Riverford's president, Dr. Daniel Rainey, is a longtime family friend who Charles hopes will provide a caring, mentoring hand in his transition to independent living. Charles' true mentor, however, proves to be the college's fi ll-in secretary and dorm parent, Amy Kelly, who becomes Charles' compassionate guardian, picking him up when he falls and acting as catalyst in his journey toward late-blooming maturation. But not everything is as it appears to be at sleepy Riverford College. Daniel Rainey seems to have a private agenda, and when his simmering, class-based animosity toward Charles surfaces, the college president's self-interested actions reveal him to be Charles' plotting nemesis rather than caring friend. Against a backdrop of campus chicanery, Charles struggles to overcome his past- to recover from the effects of his mother's insidious efforts to emasculate him, to deal with the shocking revelation of a long-held family secret, and to rid himself of the remaining trappings of his wealth: a gigantic collection of objets d'art and a multimillion-dollar lodge on Lake Allen. In The Riverford Term, Charles Thurston proves that rebirth at any stage of life is possible, and sometimes optimism, patience, and deep-rooted goodness can triumph over cynicism, greed...and outright evil.