Eric Streit

Misery by Stockade Bay Eric Streit

In the Crisis of 1893, Orcas Island was insignificant in the troubles that gripped the rest of the country. The effects were no less felt there after a push to turn the island into an orchard paradise meant that fruit rotted off the trees when no one was able to buy them. It was the same year Hattie Campbell's worthless husband died. After three years of struggling and no marriage prospects worth considering leaves Hattie caring for an invalid and manipulative mother alone, she makes the audacious decision to put an ad in the Seattle paper. With the Exclusion Act in place, she never imagined a Chinese man named Zhan Tse would answer the ad for a husband. Both of them need a home, but Hattie never realized just how much she would need someone when he finds her brutally attacked under the apple trees that no longer support her.