Legend of Luke Steel

Derrick Steel was three years old when his mother moved him and his twosisters away from rural northeast Mississippi to live in St. Louis. Now twelveyears later, fi fteen-year-old Derrick learns that his father, Luke Steel has becomea legendary taxidermist in Mississippi because of his more unconventionalspecimens: a huge Hereford bull that now stands beside a prominent steakhouse, a pit bulldog who won more than forty-one illegal fi ghts before beingshot by the local sheriff , and a wrestling bear whose fi nal match almost causeda second civil war in the county. But Derrick also discovers that his father hasnow been placed in a mental institution. Why had Luke Steel not contactedhis son? And why was he now in a mental institution? Derricks answers canonly be solved by returning to the place of his birth. And since his initial linkto his father is an aunt who is deaf, Derrick must fi rst learn to communicatein American Sign Language.