My second published book is about a man who leaves his dead-end marriage and job and sets off for parts unknown. Lee Wyatt ends up in Dying Tree, South Dakota. He dives into a enfolding drama revolving around the town's favorite son, Ricky Mann. Ricky has turned into a mega-movie star He is trying to wrangle the town council into financing the majority of the costs for a risky casino-based entertainment complex bearing his name.

It was published by Denlinger's Publishers, Ltd. but since the publisher has gone out of business, I am hoping to re-release it through another publishing house.

Praise from the critics:

"A great, exciting story with well developed characters." Three-star rating ("recommended reading"). --Mary E. Dana of SharpWriter magazine

Thriller
DEAD MAN'S PLAN is a story for those of us who dream of freedom while living out our endless days in sunless cubicles, trapped inside the oppressive barbed wire cocoon of corporate America. On one such endless day, Lee Wyatt decides to make a break for it. Which is why he suddenly ups and drops his two-timing wife, ungrateful cat, and boring job in a Twin Cities bank. Lee does what many of us today lack the courage to do—he hits the road in his broken down old heap, armed with only a strong sense of determination, four beers, and a bicycle. He makes it as far as Dying Tree, South Dakota (a two-bit podunk berg) and from there the fun begins as Lee, freed from the 9 to 5 drudge of his former existence, begins to discover for himself what life's all about. The local yokels are interesting and friendly. It's the sort of place you can hang out, drink beer, shoot pool with Gomer Pyle archetypes and explore a few far-flung peyote-assisted spiritual frontiers with Native American women.

Lee is looking for something more out of life, and he soon finds that life is looking for something more out of him as well. As he begins to dream for the first time of things heavenly and hellish, a new freedom captivates his soul—and just as he starts to flap his wings a bit, he discovers his paradise found is about to be lost. The town of Lee's rebirth is scheduled to be ripped apart by one of its native sons—Ricky Mann, a former hick turned famous actor who made it big in Hollywood and is back home to tear down the place and build in its stead a hideous entertainment complex, replete with slot machines, garish theatrical venues featuring washed up crooners, and plenty of Branson-ish extra-long parking spaces for the bluehairs in their motor homes. When fledgling spiritualist Lee sets himself and his newfound cosmic- consciousness against the powerful Hollywood icon and greed-o-maniac Ricky Mann, something has got to give. What follows is a modern day High Noon, acted out in places both high and low on numerous earthly and spiritual planes.

Author Eide describes DEAD MAN'S PLAN as a cross-genre "spiritual thriller", and I can't disagree. Eide makes a case that Christianity and reincarnation are NOT mutually exclusive. (Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Now you've got to read it to found out exactly what the heck that means.) DEAD MAN'S PLAN is the kind of book one hopes to run across in the brave new world of e-publishing, and one you won't want to pass up. Hopefully, you'll read at least some of it in your cubicle on "company time". --David LaGraff, ScribesWorld magazine