Fifteen-year-old Maryanna Duncard’s life is a delicate balance of school and trying to steer clear of her abusive dad, Ethan. When she meets Faron, their connection quickly ignites her life, and they fall deeply in love. Maryanna is over the moon, and things are going well. Her future looks bright. Until, that is, her father catches them in her room one fateful night and hunts Maryanna’s first love down in cold blood with his Winchester repeater. Maryanna turns to the police who, for some strange reason, refuse to believe a word she says. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they claim Faron’s murder was just a horrific accident. On the run now and fearful for her life, Maryanna must learn how to survive on her own in a cruel world that has taught her to trust no one. The next years force her into a downward spiral that almost takes her life. Along the way, she meets a new friend, James, and her journey to love again leads her somewhere she never expected. Can Maryanna learn to take control of the darkness she carries within, or will it devour her before she can claim her happy ending?

Design of Darkness tells the interlocking stories of two supremely gifted people, one that ends in tragedy and one in triumph. In the words of her fianc, the medical doctor and narrator Larry Freeling, Maryanna McKenna is the smartest and sweetest woman he has ever met. She earns her doctorate in astronomy at 22, while Eddie Swinton, her best friend from childhood, learns from her father how to make a fortune in construction. Maryanna is about to marry the narrator when mosquito-borne encephalitis wrecks her intellect, reducing her to infancy. A woman who has mastered the most advanced mathematics for her doctoral dissertation is incapable of understanding even picture books for babies. Maryannas parents guard her with the same great love for the next several decades that they provided through her upbringing. Meanwhile, Eddie Swinton flourishes when his life becomes the American Dream. He marries the homecoming queen, raises three additional homecoming queens, and earns $100 million through construction in a life filled with beauty, wit, and charm. By juxtaposing such extremes of fate, Design of Darkness has few rivals for the way it turns existence back into a riddle that defies religious answers. Tell it as a love story! Tell it as a tragedy! Tell it as a triumph! Tell it as a mystery! are the last words of Maryannas father to the narrator. Larry pours his own hearts blood and memories of love into a tale as powerful and haunting as the lives of Maryanna and Eddie.

I want the world to know about my true childhood friend Anthony, and what I learned sharing his story. The sharing of the love, friendship, kindness, forgiveness and a shared connection - precious times that were like sparkling jewels are transformed into this book called "Anthony". My childhood friend - my Angel, if only we knew just how short his life would be, I wouldn't have let all those years pass by without having some more fun; playing together and sharing more, and without learning more from my friend. I would have told him, he was such a good friend to me and I would have told him "I love you."