Terry Marquardt
The
Advocate
& the Pussytoe Fields
A crime thriller born from the Pacific Northwest — where justice bends, silence protects, and wildflowers mark what the earth keeps hidden.
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Terry Marquardt
& the Pussytoe Fields
A crime thriller born from the Pacific Northwest — where justice bends, silence protects, and wildflowers mark what the earth keeps hidden.
The Novel
Evelyn is a nurse who has seen too much — what the system promises and what it delivers, the gap between those two things measured in bodies and silence.
In the fields north of the Cascades, where pussytoe wildflowers grow pale and small against dark soil, she finds what no one else was looking for. What happens next asks the hardest questions: What do we owe the victims the law forgot? What does justice look like when carried by a single pair of hands?
Author
Terry Marquardt — novelist, advocate, and author of The Gamble: An American Reckoning series. Her fiction carries the weight of the true crime work she knows intimately.
Genre
Crime Thriller · Pacific Northwest Gothic · Standalone Fiction
The Symbols
Scales of Justice
The law as it is written — and as it is practiced. Evelyn has seen both sides of that balance.
Rod of Asclepius
The healer's mark. A nurse who cares — and who acts when care is no longer enough.
Pussytoe Flowers
Delicate. Persistent. Native to the Pacific Northwest. Growing where no one looks.
The Monogram
Advocate. Patient. The relationship at the center of everything. The promise, and what it costs.
Child protection is not peripheral to this body of work. It is the center.
— Terry Marquardt, on The AdvocateThe Research & The Record
The Advocate is fiction built on a foundation of documented reality. These organizations and publications track what happens to children when systems fail — the data, the cases, the policy fights, and the survivors.
National Helpline
Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline
1-800-422-4453. Crisis intervention, information, and referrals to emergency and support resources.
childhelp.org
Research & Prevention
Prevent Child Abuse America
National research, public awareness campaigns, and evidence-based prevention programs across all 50 states.
preventchildabuse.org
Survivor Support
RAINN
The nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization. Operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
rainn.org
Search & Recovery
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Operates the CyberTipline and works with law enforcement to fight child sexual exploitation.
missingkids.org
Federal Data
Children's Bureau — HHS
Annual federal reports on child abuse statistics, foster care data, and child welfare policy.
acf.hhs.gov/cb
Policy & Law
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Federal clearinghouse for child welfare research, state laws, mandatory reporting, and systems reform.
childwelfare.gov
Investigative Journalism
ProPublica — Foster Care
Long-form investigative reporting on systemic failures in child protective services and the courts.
propublica.org
News & Reporting
The Imprint — Youth & Family News
Dedicated national newsroom covering child welfare, juvenile justice, and foster care.
imprintnews.org
Connected Work
The Gamble: An American Reckoning
The true crime narrative series that runs alongside The Advocate — two different bodies of work, one unflinching voice.
Visit TheGamble.info