To be unveiled during the APCO International Conference & Expo in Minneapolis on Aug. 20, Finding Daddy, by APCO’s own Sheila Hanna-Wiles, will be available for purchase Oct. 1.

On the first day of school, 10-year-old Jeffrey and his 6-year-old brother, Tyler, climbed out of the school bus at the foot of their driveway and walked into their home, excited about the first day of school. Instantly, their anticipation for the family back-to-school celebration turned to horror as they found their father murdered—stabbed and shot in a laundry room awash with blood. With a rush of adrenaline and terror, Jeffrey hid his younger brother, huddled behind the couch and called 9-1-1, where his mother had worked for years as a dedicated telecommunicator.

The boys survived that day, and their widowed mother fought to raise her family, but the horror, fear and grief haunted them for years. In Finding Daddy, the boys-turned-young-men describe their journey from the terrifying moment they found their father, through the 9-1-1 call and onto the courageous years that would follow with their 9-1-1 mother at the helm, guiding their survival.

Finding Daddy is the inspiring true story of reconciling grief, overcoming fear and looking within to discover the character necessary to fight and move forward in the image and memory of a father and a husband taken too soon. In a rare turn, readers will journey with a 9-1-1 professional as that daily call becomes her own. The most daunting part of telecommunications is wondering what happened to the people saved in their most critical moments. Finding Daddy brings readers back to the beginning.

The author will be signing copies at 1 p.m. Monday in the Exhibit Hall at the 78th Annual APCO Conference & Expo.

—PUBLICATION DATE: Oct. 1, 2012; ISBN-10: 0985247835; ISBN-13: 978-0985247836