Ken Buntz

Black Caddies Ken Buntz

The novel, Black Caddies, bears witness to the clash of swords between Mercy and Justice, beginning onboard the last slave ship anchored off the coast of South Carolina at the end of the Civil War, and culminating 140 years later outside a federal prison's execution chamber. The character, Calvin Free, reimagines the real life of the last American slave who lived to see his 120th year. Following the perilous rescue of a newborn baby aboard ship, time transports the reader like a thrown rock skipping across the surface of a lake. Tyrone Folks is introduced, an at-risk urban youth who clocks for drug lord Pinky Congo on the streets of New York City. A few years later, we meet lawyer Mandrake Singer seeking to qualify for the last amateur appointment in the famed National Tournament. The barbered fairways of that venerable venue, which is intertwined with the hazards and heat of the swampland at Tall Trees, South Carolina is where the novels intriguing story lines intersect.