People ask me if I\u2019m Arthur Stone. I always quickly clarify that I\u2019m definitely not! There\u2019s hardly anything about Arthur Stone that\u2019s like Chris Scruggs. On the other hand, all the characters\u2014even the villains\u2014reflect a piece of me because, when you write, you naturally explore your innermost character, feelings, and motivations. One character, in particular, has become especially meaningful to me over time. That\u2019s Ahn Winchester, who enters the story as the Vietnamese wife of a partner at Winchester & Wells, Arthur\u2019s law firm. She\u2019s a recurring presence throughout the novels, gently guiding everyone back to their true selves and helping them find genuine happiness.<\/p>\n Ahn is a Roman Catholic and a mystic. Her father was Catholic, but her mother continued to practice aspects of Buddhism that are an important part of Vietnamese culture, particularly meditative prayer. Her prayer life enables her to both distance herself from problems and enter more deeply into them and their impact on those she loves. One message of the Arthur Stone novels is the benefit of what I call \u201cmeditative decision making.\u201d The most recent novel finds her attempting to offer wise guidance even as she faces a tremendous shock.<\/p>\n When I started writing the Arthur Stone series, I was a Presbyterian minister who always emphasized what C. S. Lewis called \u201cMere Christianity,\u201d both in my churches and in my preaching. Since retiring, I\u2019ve had the joy of visiting many different types of churches\u2014from charismatic to Orthodox, with worship styles ranging from contemporary to highly liturgical. One exciting aspect of writing these books was learning about different religious traditions.<\/p>\n Gwynn Stone is an Anglican, Arthur and his brother are Presbyterians, and one of the characters is Jewish while another is Roman Catholic. Throughout the series, especially in Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>, we meet Episcopalian priests, mystical Muslims, Buddhist monks, Jewish prayer warriors, Orthodox monks in Greece, Roman Catholic Benedictines, and others. While it\u2019s fair to say that I\u2019m trying to interest readers in religion and Christianity. In particular, it’s not true that I’m trying to convert anyone to a particular faith.<\/p>\n Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em> explores the 2008 banking crisis and the years that followed. What I find particularly interesting is that all these crises reflect common flaws in human nature more than in the laws governing our financial system. People who want to take risks tend to do so regardless of the rules in place. One important message of this series is that a free market depends on morally responsible participants. Without that moral foundation, financial instability and greed-fueled crashes are inevitable.<\/p>\n I have a friend who loves to include real people in his novels. I take a different approach. I go out of my way to ensure that no living person appears in any way in the novels. As you\u2019ll learn if you read all of them, and as I often say, \u201cIf there\u2019s any living or dead person involved in the novels, they\u2019ve been dead for over 1000 years.\u201d Another one of my quips about the novels is, \u201cAlthough none of the people are real, unfortunately, all of the spiritual realities are very real and attack us all.\u201d It doesn\u2019t take more than a look at the daily newspaper to know that human nature is pretty stable and that we human beings tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again throughout history. I bet there was violence, greed, lust, and financial fraud among prehistoric humans.<\/p>\n I do not want to give away any of the details of Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>, but I think many people, secular and religious, would enjoy the read. Arthur Stone’s life, like ours is not “complete”, if the word “complete” means, “I have accomplished and experienced everything I planned or desired.” All human life is a combination of success and failure, pleasure and pain, plans that are achieved and plans that are not. Learning to live within limits is a part of achieving wisdom in this life.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n [1]<\/strong><\/a> Marshland<\/em><\/strong> (Westbow, 2023)<\/strong>; <\/strong>P<\/em><\/strong>eace at Battle Mountain<\/em><\/strong> (Quansus, 2024)<\/strong>; <\/strong>Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em><\/strong> (Quansus & Bookbaby, 2026), all<\/strong> written under the pen name Alystair West. All are available on Amazon and from other vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever had a secret ambition that was never fulfilled? In my case, for years, I would tell Kathy that I\u2019d like to write a murder mystery set in a large law firm. In my early years, I worked in a large law firm and was well aware that the large number of brilliant … Continue reading No Life Is Perfect, but Every Life is Meaningful<\/span> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Marshland.jpg\")
<\/a>By the time Marshland<\/em> was finished, I\u2019d rewritten almost every aspect of the novel to make it something it never started out to be. (Most frustratingly, almost all the names were changed.) Somewhere before Marshland <\/em>was finished, I realized that it could be part of a larger work that would become Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em> and Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>.[1]<\/a> My one novel became three. The latest, Leviathan and the Lambs,<\/em> was published earlier this year. What began as a simple murder mystery with spiritual overtones became the story of a young man, his intelligent and beautiful bride, and an entire cast of characters over the course of forty or so years.<\/p>\n<\/a>Each novel centers on an economic crisis. Marshland <\/em>is set during the Texas Savings and Loan crisis, while Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em> takes place during the time of the Enron collapse.<\/p>\n<\/a>Despite the presence of fraud, murder, and mayhem, these elements are window dressing as one looks at deeper questions of life. In the case of Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>, we meet Arthur Stone at the peak of his professional career. He is rich, honored in his profession, and unfulfilled by his accomplishments. He suffers from what the mystics call, the \u201cDemon of the Noonday Sun,\u201d that lethargy and weariness that often attacks us in midlife.<\/p>\n