Docksteder Tales

It's 1995. When famous author Barron Docksteder moves to the Carolina foothills, the locals don’t know what to make of it. Why did this hotshot writer, whose works have been made into Hollywood films, move to the middle of nowhere? Despite living in North Carolina, Docksteder regularly drives across the border to South Carolina for a late breakfast at a comfortable small-town café. The young café owner, who is a frustrated writer, is befriended by Docksteder, and the two initiate a mentor-mentee relationship that extends well beyond the page.

It is the late 1990s, and world-famous author Barron Docksteder has been murdered in the small rural town of Tryon, NC. His protégé knows the police are blaming the wrong person, but how can he prove it? Is the answer in one of the celebrated writer’s numerous notebooks? Accompanied by Docksteder’s highly trained guard dog, Doc, the former café owner embarks on an adventure to the heart of Carnival and Mardi Gras in the notorious French Quarter. There, fate and Docksteder’s notes bring him to the home of Desirée, the mysterious and alluring former Queen of Carnival.

On a snowy, wintry day, Barron Docksteder’s protégé uncovers a manuscript Docksteder was working on shortly before his untimely death. Clearly at least partly autobiographical, the manuscript tells the story of a world-famous author - whose books have been turned into Hollywood blockbusters - caught in a deadly crossfire between competing Las Vegas and East Coast gambling interests. Meanwhile, that same world-famous author is ensnared by the irresistible allure of a beautiful, mysterious, and equally deadly woman who is determined to outmaneuver them all.