Dread and Breakfast

Dread and Breakfast is the story of Greg Bain, who finds himself involved in a battle for the survival of himself and his wife against Shawnee witches in the Yew Mountains of West Virginia. Greg has lost a promising professional basketball career due to injury. He is a recovering alcoholic looking for a new start while he peddles sporting goods. Then a driving mountain rainstorm sends him into the town of Plenty looking for shelter, and he is immersed in a world of intrigue,...
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Dread and Breakfast is the story of Greg Bain, who finds himself involved in a battle for the survival of himself and his wife against Shawnee witches in the Yew Mountains of West Virginia. Greg has lost a promising professional basketball career due to injury. He is a recovering alcoholic looking for a new start while he peddles sporting goods. Then a driving mountain rainstorm sends him into the town of Plenty looking for shelter, and he is immersed in a world of intrigue, superstition and mortal danger to both himself and his wife Sarah. The local storekeeper directs him to the only bed and breakfast in the village, the Plenty Comfy. There Greg meets and is immediately drawn to the Roops, the warm couple who operate the B&B in a huge old mansion. They tell him of the legend that surrounds Plenty and how it began when a young Shawnee maiden pronounced a curse on Myrtle Roop's father. The Shawnee girl's mother was believed by the locals to be an Indian witch. Greg, who has aspired to write since college, decides this is his opportunity to begin his first novel. He begins to dig for information on the witch's curse and finds deaths have mysteriously occurred on the Roop property at intervals stretching back fifty years. Some of the details are particularly disturbing to Greg since they seem to involve him more personally than as an accidental visitor. Then his wife takes ill and he becomes convinced there is a connection between her deep coma and the Plenty curse. The aged former sheriff, Dillard Westerly, delights in teasing Greg with facts about the Plenty curse, and Greg becomes convinced the old man is a key to breaking the spell over the town. He is aided by information from the quirky general store owner, a librarian at the county seat, and a Shawnee shaman dazzles Greg with his mystical powers. Myrtle's father's diary provides eye-opening details about the string of tragedies that began with the kidnapping of Myrtle's younger sister. An intriguing young girl who works at the Comfy tempts and pursues Greg, and she becomes an important part of the puzzle. Along the way, Greg Bain undergoes life-altering experiences, and he comes to realize that he is no chance visitor to Plenty but an essential part of the story of the town's legend. His struggle to outwit the witch's curse and bring his own wife back from her coma reaches its culmination on Halloween night when the most startling revelation of all comes to Greg.