Arrested Innocence:

Welcome to the Preston School of Industry. Your stay here will not be pleasant. You will labor side by side with juveniles convicted of murder and rape until society deems you rehabilitated enough to be released on parole.

Sixteen-year-old orphan William Thomas is taking his very first stagecoach ride; but he is not enjoying it; he is on his way to a boy’s prison.

His crime? Only vagrancy. In 1897, however, that offense carried a punishment with a minimum sentence of thirty months.

Yet, the Preston School of Industry also housed boys guilty of much more serious crimes.

Wellspring of reform, or a catchbasin for punishment? School of industry, or training ground for more serious crimes?

What effect will this incarceration have on his future, if he survives?

Available

on Kindle and paperback

Watch the Plug for the book on AMLive

April 2nd, 2014

Reviews:

Arrested Innocence is an outstanding example of literary proficiency that will delight the senses while leading you through a heart-rending, coming-of-age saga.

Set in the foothills of Central California in the twilight of the 19th century, Mr. Stout deftly weaves this epic story of William Thomas, orphaned and then sentenced to a boy’s prison, masquerading as a vocational school, for the crime of vagrancy. We witness William’s life as the timid and naïve boy adjusts to the strict discipline of the school and the violent behavior of some of the aggressive cadets.

The imagery is vivid, and the prose is graceful and flowing.

Deprived of his freedom and existing under physical and mental hardship, William only has hope to feed his will to survive; hope that one day he will be released to find his much-younger brother, left in foster care. But the school’s superintendent, a wicked man named Kesey, has other plans.

The story slowly builds, almost subliminally, to a suspense-filled climax worthy of a Hitchcock thriller. Once I entered the last fifty pages, I literally could not stop reading! Arrested Innocence is a smashing follow-up to Mr. Stout’s first novel, Words, proving he is an author worthy of following. If you enjoy historical fiction (think James Michener), then you simply have to read this book!

Arrested Innocence" by Gary Stout is well worth reading. It has a strong and surprising plot, interesting characters, and a good feeling of its time and place.

Stout does a fine job of putting the reader in the shoes of a sixteen-year-old California boy of over one-hundred years ago."

Bob Garland, Author of the Humbolt Prior Adventures