Frank Murtaugh

Trey's Company Frank Murtaugh

Love a little, die a little, and break the law. Trey Milligan did them all in one summer, and before his 14th birthday. Trey lives in Southern California with his parents and younger sister, but is spending the summer after 7th grade with his widowed grandmother in a small Tennessee town. The South becomes home to Trey, but also represents the freedom every child associates with the summer months. Three of Trey's friends - Wendy, Devon, and Larry - come to personify love, death, and the criminal element, challenges every child must, at some point, confront. Together, the trio builds an unasked-for bridge to adulthood for Trey. The warmth and comforts of a "summer at Grandma's" becomes a life-changing season of internal growth. None of the transformative events of this fateful summer, though, prepare Trey for the horror almost literally next door . . . the monster in hiding, and far too close to the girl he comes to love. A coming of age tale set in the summer of 1982, the story reflects the transition of a young man forced - over three months - to grow up in ways that typically require several years. Trey's grandmother, sister, and an older second-cousin help shape him through the most memorable summer of his life. But it's three friends - Trey's company - who forever change his life.