AFTER OZ is an inventive and remarkably entertaining retelling of the days Dorothy was missing from Kansas in The Wizard of Oz. The late Gordon McAlpine has crafted a genre-mixing masterpiece of fantasy and mystery.

A twister hits the town of Sunbonnet, Kansas, in the summer of 1896. The Gale family farm is demolished, and eleven-year-old Dorothy is nowhere to be found. The townspeople search for Dorothy until on the fourth day she is found in a pumpkin patch unharmed with her dog Toto. When asked where she was, Dorothy talks about yellow brick roads, the emerald city, witches, and a wizard. She also speaks of melting a witch with a bucket of water, and when the town’s meanest recluse, Alvina Clough, is found dead a few days later coated in corrosive lye, all suspicion lands on Dorothy. After a town hearing, she is sent to the Topeka Insane Asylum. A young psychologist, Evelyn Grace Wilford, is notified of Dorothy’s case by her cousin Frank Baum. Evelyn goes to interview Dorothy and believes the girl is innocent. Evelyn will travel to Sunbonnet, Kansas, to find the truth in this community of secrets and save Dorothy from years in the asylum.

AFTER OZ is told by two narrators with opposing viewpoints: a town resident and Evelyn Grace Wilford. One narrator believes in Dorothy’s guilt and will not consider facts that will threaten their view of Sunbonnet and its way of life. The other narrator, a young female psychologist who studied under William James (1890’s The Principles of Psychology), is more open-minded in her approach and not easily swayed by community perceptions. Told through letters and recollections, the story unfolds into a skillfully written mystery that twists and turns like the tornado winds. The mystery includes elements of willful ignorance, conscious manipulation, scientific progress vs. the status quo, and escaping unjust societies. AFTER OZ is a unique and compelling story that is surprising in its ability to so effectively use elements from The Wizard of Oz and craft them into a darn good mystery.