Elizabeth Engstrom

York's Moon Elizabeth Engstrom

When a dead guy falls off a train just yards from Yorktown, a hobo camp near West Wheaton, California, all manner of forces begin to collide.

Three men live in Yorktown: York, the old blind hobo and self-proclaimed mayor and minister of his little enclave, Denny, the young rail rider, and Sly, the damaged Vietnam vet. When they are blamed for the murder, the town fathers are ready to bulldoze the camp that has existed there for forty years or more.

Clover, the girl who works at the donut shop and keeps the bums in day-old and toothpaste as her personal ministry, determines to save the camp and the harmless guys who live out in the open. She has the compassionate ear of the sheriff, but his deputy is a hothead, and in the pocket of the mayor who has shady business dealings he needs to have accomplished under dark of night.

When Clover and her boys discover who really killed the guy on the train, tensions ratchet up and a van full of thugs are hired to go clean up the hobo camp by the light of the full moon, but blind old York and his two inept sidekicks are ready for them in as unconventional a defensive posture as possible.

Eventually, everyone knows it's the end of the era when rail riders can live out their freedoms, and the inevitable is going to happen, but before it does, those who wield unreasonable power must have their comeuppance, and those who have been doing good works all their lives must be rewarded.

York's Moon is an unconventional murder mystery, a story of love, hope, and how the little guy can fight city hall and win. Sort of.