Idaho author Dick Sonnichsen’s latest book takes the novel approach

By Reader Staff

After six volumes of nonfiction, Idaho writer Dick Sonnichsen has turned his hand to fiction. His latest book, Whipsawed: Agony, Joy and Destiny at a Mountain Pond, is the story of an ill-planned felony and the ensuing complications. The story is set in the small towns of Sandpoint and Coeur d’ Alene, amid the Selkirk Mountains in the northern Idaho panhandle. In a reverse spin on the “whodunit” crime story, Whipsawed outlines the events arising from the arrest and imprisonment of the perpetrator.

Freddy Delcore’s decision to rob the First National Bank in Coeur d’Alene in 1963 set loose a long series of unintended consequences, changing the lives of Freddy; the teller he robbed; the FBI agent who arrested him; Freddy’s sister, Sandra; and Father Ron, a Catholic parish priest who Freddy never met — and never will.

After being tracked down and arrested in Sandpoint a year after the robbery by Special Agent Marty Thomas and a slam-dunk trial in Coeur d’ Alene, Freddy served hard time in Lompoc Prison. Fifteen years after the robbery, Freddy is out of Lompoc, back in Sandpoint and obsessed with revenge on the FBI agent. Through familial blackmail, he recruits Sandra — a liberated and somewhat libertine woman — to dispatch the now-retired FBI agent. 

In a serendipitous meeting, Marty Thomas, Sandra Delcore and Father Ron cross paths at a Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast in Sandpoint, precipitating a long, complicated exchange between Sandra and Father Ron of psychological, theological — and physical — emotions.   

Sonnichsen called on local knowledge and prior experience for the setting and plot of Whipsawed. He grew up in Coeur d’ Alene and, after a three-decade career in law enforcement and consulting elsewhere, moved back to Idaho. 

He and his wife, Sally, settled in Kootenai — just east of Sandpoint on Lake Pend Oreille. He graduated from the College of Forestry at the University of Idaho, and worked in the timber industry before being drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. He served in the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) from 1961 to 1963. In 1964, he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation and served for 30 years as a special agent investigator, inspector and senior executive. 

Sonnichsen retired as the deputy assistant director in charge of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Audits. After retiring from the FBI, he worked providing management consulting and taught evaluation and social science research methods as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California.

Whipsawed has the distinction of being the 40th title published by Blue Creek Press, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in business.

Prior to his foray into fiction, Sonnichsen created a half-dozen well-researched books of social commentary on subjects including the impending collapse of the Catholic Church (A Church in Peril), the gender wars (Why Don’t Men Like Women?) and a recipe for the return of civility and bipartisan cooperation in United States politics (Enlightening America). All of Sonnichsen’s seven books have been published by Blue Creek Press, which is based in Heron, Mont.

In Whipsawed, the breakfast encounter between Sandra Delcore and Father Ron prompts a series of hikes to a hidden pond in the Selkirk Mountains that the priest has claimed as his personal Eden. His desire to reveal the restorative solace of wilderness to his new friend at the pond is distinguished by comedy, anxiety, intrigue, and private mental and emotional battles. Romance is messy and neither wants to be first to share their authentic emotions for fear of rejection. In the meantime, Freddy keeps pushing for Marty’s demise, honing in on a fateful winter night encounter in a First Avenue bar in Sandpoint.

Though it might be known from the beginning of the book “who done it,” Sonnichsen’s telling of the tale keeps readers wondering who’s going to do what next.

Whipsawed (262 pages, $14.95 paperback, $9.99 on Kindle) is available in paperback at local bookstores or on Amazon. Get more information at bluecreekpress.com