THE SOLACE OF DENIM

Whom do you trust when you can’t trust yourself?

The victim of a horrific crime, fifteen-year-old Joey Kowalski has bounced around in the foster care system for six years. When his only friend Luke is murdered, suspicion falls on Joey. As evidence mounts against him, Luke’s denim jacket appears in Joey’s closet. When he puts on the jacket, he gets visions of Luke's murder and hears Luke's voice in his head. Can Joey convince Luke's father, Detective Marek, to look past his grief and help him find the real killer?

THE SOLACE OF DENIM [©2023] Written by Kathy Otten | Young Adult Mystery (PG) 186 pages / 68,000 words | Released in June 2023 | Available in ebook and print from the DFP Books label of Dragonfly Publishing

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READ AN EXCERPT

CHAPTER 1:

SCHOOL sucks!
Joey Kowalski kicked the bedroom door shut and tossed his backpack in the general direction of the closet. The weight of his books inside dropped the bag to the hardwood floor with a thud.
Pinching the zipper tab of his winter jacket, he pulled down. It jammed halfway. He jerked the tab, but the zipper didn’t move. Reaching behind his neck, he grabbed the back of the collar and yanked the nylon coat over his head. He left the sleeves to dangle wrong side out and flung the useless jacket toward his book bag.
He limped to his bed, flopped face down, and sighed into his pillow. He’d survived another day of whispered name calling, a stolen lunch, and guys knocking into him. He’d made it through another gym class struggling to play basketball, waiting to shower last so no one would see his scars.
He’d endured another lecture from Mrs. Brolin, who told him: “This circled F at the top of your math test is there because you’re being lazy. Your grades at the beginning of the year indicate you can do better. You just aren’t trying.”
His math book was in his backpack. He had homework, but without Luke to explain the A’s, B’s, and negative numbers, Joey just didn’t get it. Besides, even if he aced every quiz and test from now to the end of the semester, he had so many zeros and F’s he’d still be failing at midterms. So why bother? It was like falling out of a plane without a parachute. If you’re going to die at the end, you might as well enjoy the fall.
“Joey!” Lorraine’s sharp voice rose up the stairwell and penetrated the bedroom door. Usually, he ignored her. If he waited, her voice would rise an octave with each failed attempt to gain his attention. Sometimes he wondered how high her voice could go before shrieking into nothingness. Today he just wanted her to shut up.
He lifted his head off the pillow. “What?”
“Frank and I are going grocery shopping. We’re taking the little ones with us. We’ll be back in a couple of hours. Before you do your homework, I want you to come down and help Allison decorate her gingerbread men.”
He’d rather do his math.
“Do you hear me?”
They’d be gone for a couple of hours. Maybe he could get out of here for a while. He rolled off the bed.
“Joey!”
Her voice had jumped all the way to a high-C.
“Coming!”
“Don’t take too long. I want the kitchen cleaned up by the time we get back.”
Whatever. He shivered and massaged his right thigh, waiting for them to leave.
Even with a long sleeve T-shirt beneath his flannel shirt and hoodie, he was cold. The old farmhouse was drafty, and Frank was too cheap to keep the thermostat above sixty-five.
The shrieks and squeals of little kids faded as the back door slammed. Soon gravel crunched beneath the weight of the minivan as it rolled down the driveway. A minute later the faint, low southern tones of Elvis singing Blue Christmas drifted upstairs.
Every Christmas was blue. Fa-la-la and ho-ho-ho was for stupid kids who still believed.
He walked over to the closet to find another sweater or sweatshirt. He was sick of always being cold. It made his leg ache and his chest hurt. Maybe when summer came, he’d feel better.
He turned the knob and pulled open the door. He had a blue Penn State sweatshirt in there somewhere. He reached out to sift through the shirts and froze.
A faded denim jacket hung slightly apart from the other clothes.
His heart skipped a beat. He swung around, searching the corners of his room. For what, he didn’t know. Everything remained exactly the same as it had been a moment ago. He turned back to the closet. The jacket was still there.
Joey hugged himself, rubbing his hands over his biceps. He squeezed his eyes tight and then opened them, but the jacket hadn’t vanished. His pulse thudded inside his ears, muting all sounds of Elvis.
Both afraid of the jacket and drawn to it, Joey reached out and pulled it from the hanger. It looked the same as it had the last time he’d seen Luke wearing it. Band logo patches decorated the denim across the shoulders, back, and front: Tool, Nine-Inch Nails, Manson, Slipknot, a skull, and a peace symbol.
He couldn’t fathom how Luke’s jacket had gotten into his closet after all these months, but there it was.
Should he put it on?

[Copyright ©2024 Kathy Otten | No unauthorized reproduction or distribution]

READ REVIEWS

Goodreads

"Trusting no one, not even himself, foster teen Joey’s only hope is to solve his only friend’s murder. The denim jacket assists. Kathy Otten’s fast paced mystery engages the mind and tugs at the heart. As soon as I finished the last page I wanted to start on page one and read it again. Though Otten writes THE SOLACE OF DENIM for young adults, any mystery reading adult would enjoy the novel, especially those who know teenagers in foster care." ~ reviewed by Janet Wells at Goodreads [FIVE STARS]

"In Kathy Otten's masterful young adult mystery, THE SOLACE OF DENIM, truth is hard find and even more difficult to believe. Joey, a teenage survivor of a horrific domestic crime, has literally limped from foster home to foster home for years. After his best friend Luke is murdered, suspicion falls upon Joey. The one person who believes in him is Luke's father, Detective Marek. Mysteriously, Marek's old jean jacket, the one Luke liked to wear, shows up in Joey's closet. With the jacket come voices inside Joey's head and strange visions, as if someone is trying to show him who killed Luke. THE SOLACE OF DENIM is a gripping young adult book that provides an intense journey with an ending that is truly stunning." ~ reviewed by Amber Sparks [5-STARS]

"Down on his luck, wounded in body and soul, Joey is now framed for the death of his only friend. Has his time run out? Travel with Joey as he battles the ghosts of his past and flees the ghost of today while maybe finally finding one person who believes he’s worth something." ~ reviewed by Todd Main [FIVE STARS]

"Once you enter Joey Kowalski’s world of hurt, you are hooked and must endure his emotional healing journey. The story weaves a murder mystery with the character’s world of continual endurance as he navigates recovery from his ugly family life into foster care with people who don’t understand his emotional state. The tension in this story never stops as the author takes the reader on an emotionally packed ride. This story will drain you but the read is well worth the time and at the end you will breathe a satisfying relief. THE SOLACE OF DENIM stays with you, as you continue to digest the many intricacies of this great character study." ~ reviewed by Willow at Amazon [FIVE STARS]

Joey Kowalski has had just about every bad break in his young life, including family violence of the worst kind. When he finds himself in a new high school and yet another foster home, he’s finally lucky enough to meet neighbor Luke Marek, who becomes his good friend. When Luke is murdered, it throws Joey’s world into turmoil. Will Marek, Luke’s detective father, hounds Joey to discover what happened, his own life now a tragedy pulled from the headlines. Author Kathy Otten takes the reader right inside Joey’s torn-up body and broken heart, and we struggle mightily with him as he tries to discover what happened to Luke. Why does the denim jacket Luke always wore keep turning up in Joey’s closet? Why does Joey sometimes see things from a mysterious perspective that’s not his own? Is he seeing something that Luke saw, or something that Joey himself did? Could he have killed Luke? The secrets unravel slowly, with pages that just don’t turn fast enough, until Joey and Luke’s father must both face the deadly truth. I highly recommend THE SOLACE OF DENIM! ~ reviewed by Suzi Taylor [FIVE STARS]

"THE SOLACE OF DENIM by Kathy Otten is a gripping story of abuse, loss, and relationships. The main character, Joey, is dealing with an unhappy foster family life, and coping with the murder of his best friend, Luke. When Luke’s denim jacket mysteriously appears, Joey puts it on and hears and sees Luke. The jacket gives him visions that he struggles to understand and yet leads him closer and closer to danger and discovery. Kathy Otten masterfully weaves the emotions of Joey’s past trauma with his losses and his current situation so well that the reader is drawn into the plot, living, and feeling the events with the main character. This is a book you won’t put down until the end. I’m still in awe at this wonderfully crafted story. I highly recommend this book." ~ reviewed by Janyce Brawn [FIVE STARS]

THE SOLACE OF DENIM is a beautiful story of overcoming. Joey is a sympathetic and compelling character to follow through his trials and the bond that forms between him and Marek is heart warming. With some paranormal aspects, the depiction of Joey as a foster kid, who is bullied and treated as if he can't be trusted because of his father's actions, give a strong sense of realism. Loved it! ~ reviewed by Fatstagnation at Amazon [FIVE STARS]

I'm not a young adult, but I found THE SOLACE OF DENIM engaging. The subject matter is edgy, and the pace keeps you turning the pages. I highly recommend it. ~ reviewed by Allen Dale [FIVE STARS]

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