Loren Franklin

The Lodge is a story about two brothers who inherit a mountain lodge from their uncle. The lodge itself is on the banks of Odell Lake, an actual lake in the Cascade Mountains. On the other side of Odell Lake from the lodge is a militia camp, owned and operated by an ex-marine colonel who wants the whole lake to himself so he might carry out war games to keep his troops trained.

Everything goes along quite well for the brothers until they book a group of 25 chiropractors for a weekend retreat. The chiropractors are part of the Chiropractors Institute of America, the C.I.A. When the militia camp gets word that the C.I.A. is at the lake, they suspect the chiropractors are actually the FBI and decide to attack.

The book is quite humorous. It is an outdoor adventure comedy. It tells the love story of Handy and Clara, the handy man and waitress who meet at the beginning of the book. There is the fishing guide and pathological liar “Nearly Honest Bob” and his old friend Hank. There is the cross-dressing Colonel and the Sergeant Major who has loved him since Vietnam. There is William Divine, a carpet cleaner who unknowingly sets the stage for the final attack. There are the two brothers who’s lives finally come together at the lodge that summer.