Camille Gardner feels obligated to her Uncle Scot for rescuing her.

Sweet Olive
Judy Christie©2013
Zondervan Publishers
ISBN 978-0310-33054-7
341 pp. Plus Discussion questions (trade paper)

Camille Gardner feels obligated to her Uncle Scot for rescuing her and her mother after her father was killed. Scot paid for Camille’s art education and also training as a ‘landman’, someone who gathers signatures from property owners for mineral and water rights to their land.

The people of Sweet Olive do not want to sell their mineral and especially their water rights. Uncle Scot expects Camille to act as he would--bully them into compliance. But Camille’s real dream is to run an art gallery and she’s fascinated by the talented folk artists of Sweet Olive. She seeks to become their friend.

The small town of Samford holds sad memories for Camille, which she admits to no one. She makes several serious mistakes in dealing with the local people and honestly admits her fault. Her assistant undercuts Camille’s work and gains the job Uncle Scot had promised his niece.

Camille and lawyer Marsh Cameron discover some surprising past ‘deals’. Will they stop Uncle Scot and an officious senator from stealing the Sweet Olive mineral rights? An unexpected catastrophe pushes everyone’s agenda in an unwelcome direction.

The surprise ending proves in a most satisfying way that honesty wins.