Nineteen years ago, I was born as Quinn O’Neill, but keep that to yourself. For the next week I must be known as Katie Smith.

I’m traveling from South Carolina to Georgia with my father, stepbrother and uncle. We’re all using false names. The tags and company name on our two trucks and equipment are fake. Our licenses and permits for the paving work we’ll provide for residents of a suburb near Atlanta are also counterfeit.

I’m torn about our culture. We swindle people and take their money. Here in South Carolina, it’s early March and already spring. The clean scent of the Georgia longleaf pine is soothing as it blows through the truck’s window. I try not to let my misgivings show because my younger stepbrother will sneer and tell me I’m just like my mother, an outsider who married my father, only to abandon us when I was two.

People call us gypsies, but we’re Irish American Travellers, descendants of the Irish tinkers who traveled in colorful, horse-drawn caravans. My people fled to the US during the 1845 potato famine. These days we travel in shiny American-made trucks.

Here’s the thing, three or four months from now, when the driveways we pave begin to crumble and crack, we’ll be long gone. Good luck finding the Smith Paving Company. We don’t exist. But we’ll be enjoying the cash we took for our faulty work.

I have to admit, there’s a part of me that loves the thrill of a good con. Like when I swindled the asphalt plant guy out of $900 by telling him I’d pay him that night if he came to our trailer. By the time he arrived we’d already vanished.

I felt no guilt for this. Every time I’d gone in his office, he’d leered at me and made rude sexual innuendos. His pumped-up gym arms displayed tattoos of a sledgehammer, a drill, and a welding rod. I figured it must be compensation for a lack of equipment behind his zipper.

But sometimes I get to know these people, and sometimes they are very kind and treat me well. That’s when stealing their money hurts. So, I try not to think about it.

I’m also trying not to brood about my marriage contract with a man I don’t love. My stepmother made sure the deal was sealed when she accepted a large cash payment for the contract. We are one of the wealthier families in Tinkers Town. That makes me valuable.

My people are all about amassing wealth and protecting the fraudulent traditions that allow for this. Keeping everything in the family is important. One way we do this is through these marriage contracts. Another method is pulling us out of school by the sixth grade. What we don’t know won’t hurt the tribe.

I educated myself by reading books. My stepmother calls me Miss High and Mighty and belittles me when my new issue of the National Geographic arrives. My nearly illiterate stepbrother makes fun of the book collection on my bedroom shelves. As we roll down the highway, these thoughts depress me.

But next to me, my father’s behind the wheel. I glance at him and his even white teeth flash me a smile beneath blue eyes filled with mischief. He’s a total scoundrel, but I adore him. I also love my aunt and uncle. They return that love, and I believe, will always watch my back.

My aunt reads tarot cards, and predicts that my future holds a different life. One with true love and many journeys. But how can I avoid the marriage contract? My father gave his word. And how can I leave the only people and way of life I know?

Thinking about my future and the unknown road ahead, I remember a Latin phrase I learned that has become my mantra. God forbid my step family knew I’d taught myself a little Latin. They’d be appalled.

I murmur the comforting phrase and its translation. “Inveniam viam aut faciam. I shall find a way or make one. ”

Travels of Quinn by Sasscer Hill is the first book in the NEW “Quinn O’Neill” traditional mystery series, released February 11, 2020.

Born an Irish American Traveller gypsy, Quinn’s father and stepfamily raise her to be a con artist. Can she escape a binding marriage contract and a life of crime?

Jailed for theft, Quinn pays restitution working on a horse farm. Unfamiliar with horses, her love for them surprises her. They make her hope for a better world.

Until the farm’s owner is brutally murdered and Quinn is the prime suspect.

On the run, Quinn uses every scam and con she knows to save herself. Can she find the real killer before she’s imprisoned for life or murdered because she knows too much?

A mystery-thriller of deceit, murder, greed and hope, by multiple award-winning author, Sasscer Hill.

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About the author
Author Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets many of her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her mystery and suspense thrillers have won multiple awards and many award nominations.

Her newest title, out in February of 2020 is Travels of Quinn, a mystery-thriller based on the con artists known as Irish American Travelers.

To learn more about Sasscer, visit her website at sasscerhill.com.

All comments are welcomed.