Gerald Hayes

The Rats of Plainville Gerald Hayes

The Rats of Plainville: Tales from the Heartland is a collection of fictional short stories which take place in the areas around the Mississippi River, between St. Louis, Missouri and Davenport, Iowa. The author worked on a long-term contract in the Heartland and found time to wander the highways, bi-ways, and back roads of Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa. The sixteen stories are filled with humor, and chronical the lives and situations of people and places found while traveling.



Stories include tales of farmers who confront giant rats eating their crop, a sinkhole disaster that killed twelve people, a hitchhiker who finds a lost parrot who speaks impeccable English, and two old friends who test their friendship with leaf blowers. Other stories tell of love and loss for a rising Country and Western star, a town corrupted by a traveling snake oil salesman, and a small town reporter caught up in the biggest drug crime in Southern Illinois history.



The author creates believable characters, and several of his characters weave their way through the stories. One character, Chris Jonson, is a retired reporter who feeds the author with content for many of the stories.



In addition to twelve tales of fiction, the author takes your through the Heartland in four true stories of the road. The stories take the author down small lanes and dirt roads as he wanders between Hannibal, Missouri and Davenport, Iowa. All stories, both fiction and fact, take place in real places in the Heartland.