After Oz: A Novel by Gordon McAlpine

  After Oz: A Novel by Gordon McAlpine. Crooked Lane Books, 2024. Adult fiction.

Most people know the story of young Dorothy Gale from Kansas who was swept up to the Yellow Brick Road after a twister carried her away. Although she eventually returns to the farm, she tells magnificent tales of a wizard, witches, flying monkeys, and talking creatures.

There Gorgon McAlpine picks up the L. Frank Baum tale and adds his own story. The townspeople in 1896 Sunbonnet, Kansas have searched for days for Dorothy. Just after Dorothy's homecoming, the town spinster, age 51 and named Alina Clough appears to have been killed by lye. Dorothy has confessed she melted "a witch". Is the child guilty of Alvina's murder?

They can hardly believe Dorothy's stories and think she must be mad. They hold a community meeting to decide what to do. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em's farm has been destroyed and is no place for a young girl. A newspaper reporter in Chicago tells his sister back East about it all.

The sister, Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford, is a doctor, a psychologist, who arrives in the area to examine Dorothy. She interviews Henry and Em, Reverend Richter and his wife, Elizabeth, Sheriff Hutchins, Dr. Ward, and Mayor Watt-Smith. She writes about her musings in extensive letters to her mentor, Dr. James, and tries to solve both the murder and to help Dorothy.

Is the Topeka Insane Asylum destined to be Dorothy's home? Is it true as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home." OR is another famous author correct in saying "You can't go home again."?

This a story that readers will think about long after turning the last page.