Cemetery Woods

There are traumatic circumstances that happen to some at a "pivotal time in their young life that starts the ticking of terrible thoughts just waiting to be triggered into horrific actions," which the reader experiences in David Bancroft's riveting action thriller, Cemetery Woods.

Set in Texas during the spring of 1968, Cemetery Woods entails a three week period where unintended circumstances bring a canny, determined serial killer, Jimmy Roland, into the lives of two brothers, their parents, and two troubled 18 year old boys . . . in his compulsive goal to seek deadly revenge against two men for what they did to him when the three of them were teenagers.

"And by the "game" that he has perfected with lethal results " *****************

David Bancroft explains why he wrote "Cemetery Woods" and from a contrary perspective...

"Cemetery Woods is a completely different type of novel from my first action, thriller novel, Mere Chance ... and it was triggered by what happened to me when I was 7 and in the second grade.

I was enjoying picking blackberries with my brothers and friends in the woods behind a cemetery near our neighborhood ... when we were interrupted by a group of high school aged boys carrying rifles. Well, they decided that we would make better targets than the birds and squirrels that had been their original plan.

We all scattered to hide behind large trees when he heard the bullets whizzing near us. And just as the fear was being somewhat comforted from being behind a tree ... I felt a stinging sensation below the knee of my right leg ... I had accidentally moved it outside of the tree trunk's protection ... and the result was me having to ride my bike home about a mile away, as the blood ran down my leg ... crying all the way.

This childhood memory led me to think about what caused these teenage boys to actually shoot at us ... as just scaring us with words would have easily worked ... without endangering any of us or having to deal with the police investigation that did ensue.

So, I started to write Cemetery Woods and realized that it might be best to do so from the perspective of a serial killer, not from the hero detective trying to find him. I devoid my creative side of any caring or remorse when writing about what Jimmy Roland thought or did ... whose actions are driven by hateful, revenge ... without recourse ... and the what if ... of a more supportive, nurturing childhood."