Will of Heaven

THE WILL OF HEAVEN is the powerful true story of how one woman overcame a debilitating addiction to alcohol, rising from the courtrooms of her past to the grass plains of Kenya as a conservation research scientist. It was there she could finally fulfill her lifelong dream of working with wild elephants. Debbie Ethell became obsessed by a group of elephants in Kenya when she was eight years old after seeing them on a PBS nature show. Over the next several years, her obsession grew, until a group of school bullies left her contemplating suicide. By the time she was twenty-six, an addiction to alcohol robbed her of nearly everything except her dreams ... and it nearly took those too. Left with one final option and more judges in her life than friends, she entered a treatment center and then a halfway house, where she slowly learned how to live life sober. THE WILL OF HEAVEN vividly captures her serendipitous journey as she discovers her inner strength ... not unlike that of the elephants whose stories she tells. Part biography, part revelation, this story will inspire others to reach further than they ever thought they could. Above all, it conveys a strong message of hope, both for the elephants fighting to survive poaching and for alcoholics fighting to survive addiction.

Elephant Mountain is the gripping tale of Debbie Ethell, a young woman whose fascination with an elephant skull in a bone museum leads her down an unexpected path. What begins as a curiosity about the tragic love story of Morgan Berry, the man who gave us Packy (the first baby elephant born in a U.S. zoo in forty-four years), and Eloise Berchtold, one of the world's greatest animal trainers, soon becomes a chilling mystery. The couple, each killed by separate elephants they raised, left behind a legacy tangled in secrets, cover-ups, and unanswered questions. As former owners of a secluded elephant farm in the rugged Pacific Northwest, Morgan and Eloise's lives and deaths hold the key to a truth long buried beneath layers of deception. Determined to uncover what really happened, Debbie draws on her experience as a conservation research scientist and the steadfast support of her best friend, who is facing a life-threatening illness. While navigating the shadows of her own past, including her ongoing recovery from alcoholism, Debbie finds courage and insight from a herd of wild elephants in Kenya, a group she has studied since childhood. Their stories of survival and loss mirror her own as she delves deeper into a mystery that will test her resolve and redefine her future.