DARK SECRETS, book one of Ollie's Angels, describes the early life of OLLIE MCNEW. Ollie, born of Irish and Cherokee ancestry, is a middle child struggling to compete with an older sister and brother, yet showing unusual compassion for younger siblings.
Ollie accepts premonitions as guidance given by guardian angels. She displays wit and insight, yet sometimes incurs trouble when a stubborn nature overrules intuition. She wants to become a nurse, and tries to learn all she can about medical procedures.
Fifteen-year-old Ollie receives a head injury, when attacked by two boys. While comatose, she recalls occasions that reflect the life of a gutsy girl in the pre-Twenties era. They include the death of a young friend, strangers that steal a gun, drunks chasing a man of black Indian descent, a strange lizard, a starving family, infection in a girl's foot, robbers at the wagon yard, stray dogs that save Ollie from panthers, Gypsies, a fight, remembering the war, an ungrateful tramp, a dying aunt, a rabbit hunt in the snow, a pie supper, a trip to a carnival, a promissory note, the rape and murder of a young girl, and dark secrets shared with her best friend.
Ollie meets a young man and wavers between love and following her dream of nursing. She chooses Roy and they begin repairing a two room sharecropper house, where they will live and farm surrounding acres. Ollie has her first encounter with neighboring thieves when they attempt to steal her engagement ring, cook stove, and horse. Capable with the pistol she is wearing, Ollie reclaims her property and orders them to leave.
