Feola's Cross

About the Book

FEOLA’S CROSS sways with the pendulum of the public’s interest from escapism to the fascination of life’s cold realities.  This family’s story screams realism.

Joey Feola has only horror from perverse personal violation after his commitment to   Woodhaven Asylum.  He has no inkling that he will be murdered by a sadistic orderly, Willard Earle, for a carton of cigarettes.  But the carton of cigarettes will not be the only thing stolen – the orderly accidently discovers a solid gold cross, inset with a precious ruby.  It is the Feola cross, bequeathed to Joey’s grandmother, Josephine, before her prearranged marriage in America.  Ten years earlier, in his grandmother’s darkened kitchen, eleven-year-old Nick Feola witnessed the passing of the cross to his older brother, Joey, and the passing of something darker; the family gene for schizophrenia.

At twenty-one, Nicky is drafted.  He survives boot camp, only to be sent to the gruesome bush of Vietnam.  It is in this dark arena vengeance rears its diabolical head beckoning Nick’s decision of retribution for his brother’s murder.

About the Author

Ms. Forte has an Associates Degree in Education and transferred to Theater Arts to achieve her BA. The dichotomy of her education and interests compelled her to compile various case studies and write a novel recognizing the impact of family values on childhood development. Projects such as FEOLA’S CROSS, which explore families who have surmounted great obstacles and genuine trauma and who have had to make a conscious decision for the act of murder, instigated her first book of a trilogy. She emphasizes in her writings that family, is the hierarchy within us all. And we evolve from that centered core to become who we are today.