Pushed Times, Chewing Pepper

Armed with the wisdom of Carl Jung and psychic intuition, California family therapist Sarah Doucette Jean-Louis spends a year looking for love, counseling a stalker and surviving her married fiancé's plot to kill her. Sarah has Louisiana Creole roots. She can hold her liquor and make a mean gumbo. She also has a aunt who talks to the dead and a mother who wants her married. Sarah's life changes in Louisiana during a four-day reunion with her judgmental family, including her nemesis Cousin Stacy. It was the last place she expected to meet a man, but Michael's perfect teeth and Armani-wearing buff-ness were irresistible. He was also visiting from the west coast. Sarah's Aunt Cat warns her that Michael is trouble, but she refuses to listen. Once back in California, Sarah and Michael begin a relationship. Within months they are engaged. Amateur spy work. deceit and murder surface as Sarah's life becomes more complicated than she ever could have imagined. There is a Creole expression, "pushed times make a monkey chew pepper." It means that in difficult times, we do things that we ordinarily would not. We share Sarah's pushed times and are inspired by her transformation.