For those In Peril On The Sea is a roman a clef set int he mid-twentieth century time fromae of 1939 to 1955. Booker T. McCan is the primary protagonist, mentored by 100-year-old Count Nyame, and Flapper Jackson, his former high school math teacher and more recently shor fire control officer on the cruiser Indianaoplis. When World War II breaks out, sixteen-year-old Booker T. joins the Navy, determined to avenge the death of his brother killed in action in the Pacific. Booker T. survives the war with three Purple Hearts then returns as an officer to serve in the Korean War. The second half of the book describes the efforts of Count and Flapper to establish a School for Presidents at tuskegee Institute in the face of violent Ku Klux Klan resistance. In the end Booker t. marries an Okinawan bar girl and takes her to Africa to begin a new life.
August 14, 1945
Dear Booker T.,
While being caught up in the excitement over the end of the war, I am at the same time deeply troubled as I read today's news and listen to the accounts and commentaries on the radio. The world news summary in my newspaper reads: "World War II became a page in history last night." Then, at the bottom of the page, almost as a footnote, was this: "In the midst of the rejoicing it was disclosed by the Navy that the heavy cruiser Indianapolis had been sunk, presumably by an enemy submarine, shortly after she delivered an atomic bomb cargo to Guam. All 1,196 men aboard were casualties."
I am not concerned for your safety for I know you will survive, though I grieve for your suffering and that of your shipmates. I am mainly troubled by the presences on Earth of these weapons of devastation. In our justified elation at the end of this war we must not be fooled into thinking that the forces of evil, at home and abroad, have been totally removed from the Earth, and to our sorrow it can only be a matter of time before such forces will also have the atomic weapons. But even if America remains the only power with the weapons, who is to say we will not use them foolishly, as indeed we may already have done?
Excerpt
"And so at last, my adolescent antagonist, we come to the point . . . why did I kill your brother? I killed him because I, like all of us, am a victim, Foolish and helpless before the crushing power of people and events. In the name of duty required to act on the whims of anonymous brokers. I expected something different when i returned to my native land, but it was a childish and naive expectation. And so I killed your brother and many others, and saw my brothers killed in return, And for what? None of us knew why we were killing except that it was our patriotic duty. What price glory? Indeed."
Colonel Nishi stopped to face Mac. "Go home, Booker T. McCan," he said. "Thisa is not your war. Stop killing. Take what you have learned back to those you love. Try to make them understand."
Soldier's Gap is a non-traditional mystery with literary elements. The high school principal is brutally murdered, but Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins's search for meaning and love is a much more significant theme.
"Murder isn't usually this fun
Dreamin’ Dreams is more than a collection of stories; it is a celebration of Irish life, adventure, and the unforgettable characters who make growing up in Ireland a journey worth remembering.
As deafness, illness, and demonic forces close in around him, Ludwig van Beethoven must summon his faith and genius to complete the Missa Solemnis—a sacred masterpiece he believes could bring divine light into a darkening world.
