The Summer I Believed in God and Johnny B. Good

Pamela Jekel

May 2023 · Pro Audio Voices · Narrated by Mary Sarah

About this audiobook

The Summer I Believed in God and Johnny B. Good by Pamela Jekel is the story of a woman searching for her father. Raised by her grandparents, Lacey Wickham was told that her mother had a nervous breakdown shortly after her birth and was institutionalized. Now at twenty-seven, a psychologist with her own relationship issues, Lacey visits her aunts to discover if they know who her father might be. Two sisters who fled the family home in their teens, the aunts run a thriving spiritualist business in Cassadaga, Florida, specializing in tarot readings, séances, and spells. They have also conjured up Forneus, a minion from Hell, who shows up looking like a surfer dude in board shorts, passing out Jehovah's Witness pamphlets. The aunts call him Johnny B. Good, and he is always up for an adventure. Persuaded that indeed the supernatural is real, Lacey, her aunts, and their mischievous minion take a wildly-dysfunctional road trip to rescue Lacey's mother, find her father, and learn the life lesson that opening the door to the hereafter is really about being open to how we relate to each other here and now.

About the author

Pamela Jekel is a nationally-known novelist, well regarded for her historical sagas, four of which have been New York Times bestsellers. Her thirteen books were published in both hardcover and paperback, translated into sixteen foreign languages, and also published in Braille and Large Print Editions. Jekel grew up in California, inspired by her father, William Jekel, who was a successful Western watercolorist and muralist. Working at his feet as a child, she was encouraged by his belief that "Art is the only way to reinvent life according to our own specifications." Jekel received her formal training at UCLA, Old Dominion University, and the University of Virginia, obtained a Ph.D. in English, and has both written and painted all her life. Her works have received Best Historic Fiction awards by the National Booksellers Association and the Western Booksellers Association. Also an artist in oils and watercolors, her paintings can be seen at www.pamelajekel.com. Jekel has lived in many different locales and states, and she currently lives in Georgia.