Point Reyes Station: At 10:42 a.m. deputies called for back-up for a "pedestrian who was not following orders." So begins the short story, "Following Orders" in which we are introduced to the charmingly confused pedestrian, Fred Rhinehart, one of the magical characters author Susanna Solomon has conjured up for us in this collection of short stories, all set in Point Reyes, her scenic and lovely home town in northern California. Though the characters are fictitious, the author conceived of their adventures by pondering on actual Sheriff's Calls published in her favorite local newspaper, the Point Reyes Light. But Fred is not the only one of Solomon's characters with whom readers will fall in love. There's his wife, the cantankerous but loving Mildred; Doris, the local hairdresser, the voluptuous Officer Kettleman and more. It doesn't take long for all of them to become as real as the town in which the author imagines they live, love and dream.