Strangers and Guests

Streetwise Chicago collides with rural Wisconsin in Strangers and Guests, a novel by James Brophy.

Jack Driscoll, a Chicago policeman, returns to his boyhood home in Wisconsin along with his fiancée, Megan, a member of one of Chicago’s finest families. Enroute, they pass the farm of Roger Brandau, an old friend of Jack’s. Brandau, a giant of a man, is assaulting a dairy inspector who has made an issue of Christine Brandau keeping her birth control pills in the milk house. Jack intervenes in the assault, possibly saving the inspector’s life and preserving Roger’s freedom.

The intervention brings Jack into conflict with a radical paramilitary organization, culminating in a shootout in the hay mow of the Brandau barn, and forever altering his relationship with Megan.

James Brophy visited many Wisconsin dairy farms, first as a dairy inspector for the Chicago Board of Health and later as an inspector for the National Farmers Organization. His job was to sample butterfat content and monitor farms with mastitis problems. His novel, Strangers and Guests, is based on those experiences. He lives near Ripon, Wisconisn.