On September 6th, 1965, Sutter Wayne Thomas, 8, went missing from the Mecklenburg County Fairgrounds in Charlotte, North Carolina. He remained missing for eight years, and when he returned, horribly scarred and disfigured, he remembered nothing of where he had been, who had taken him, or what had happened to him. His abductor was never apprehended, or even identified. 30 years later, Sutter is a highly-successful true-crime author and a public relations agent for missing children, lending his fame and fortune to the efforts for their safe return. For the most part he has adjusted to the world around him, though any lingering effects from his ordeal flare to the forefront when on the exact anniversary of his abduction, another 8-year-old boy goes missing from the exact place, at the exact time, in the exact way Sutter had. HERITAGE is the story of not only of Sutter but of Patrick Lucas, the 8 year-old being held in the boiler room of a derelict castle at Heritage USA, an abandoned theme park; Dale Hartman, the detoxing heroin junkie hiding from his dealer/employer in a motel on theme park grounds; and Patrick's unknown abductor who, if suggestive newspaper clippings being sent anonymously to Sutter are to be believed, just might be the same man who abducted Sutter 30 years earlier. These four lives collide in horrifying and unpredictable ways as the investigation into Patrick's abduction - and the media circus that goes with it - ramps up into full swing. Though there are no immediate suspects, the similarities to Sutter's own abduction are pointing in an uncomfortable direction, and as this already-fragile man tries to rectify his unknown past with this turbulent present, missing fragments come to light in ways that transform not only the man, but the case, and the lives of everyone involved. A psychological thriller dealing with issues of identity, victimhood, and the many forms of family, HERITAGE is a taut and surprising mystery where no one is certain and nothing can be trusted
