CHEATING AGNES is a work of historical fiction set against the background of the 1972 Agnes Flood – the nation’s worst natural disaster at the time. In the weeks and months that followed, the lives of Wyoming Valley’s lowland residents were filled with heartbreak, hope, and humanity in the face of inexplicable loss. Heeding the call to restore the Valley is a sprightly, if not all too lively intelligent teenager, a witty Shakespeare-quoting Tom Sawyer, erm, maybe it’s Huck Finn, who turns the summer’s recovery work into an adventure.