From the beaches of Guadalcanal, United States Marines could look North towards a tiny island 29 miles away. It was Tulagi, the protective flank for the American fighting forces pitted against the Japanese. Between these two islands were fought some of the bloodiest and most costly naval battles of World War II. In October of 1942, a naval skirmish occurred which changed the life of John Lowery forever.

The story begins 30 years after the war. On his boat, Tulagi, John keeps retreating to the steaming heat of the marshes of "Down East" North Carolina. There, he repeatedly agonizes over an act of cowardice that he committed one black night while under attack in the "slot."

On one of these expeditions, he is brutally brought back to reality when he discovers the decomposing corpse of a murdered man. With the aid of three friends (the "Committee"), John sets out to solve the murder.

While not far from where John lives, another man is also struggling with his conscience. He is Rached Bussman, a brilliant black defense lawyer, who works for the "Cartel." These are the South American drug lords who control the flow of drugs into the Mideastern states through the marshy coastal lands of North Carolina.

Inexorably, these two men are driven toward each other. Each finds himself struggling to protect the ones he loves from evil and crazed Colonel Sutter and his murderous henchman, Ghent.

The story is set in the locale of the Neuse River, where I live. It is fiction, based in part on real events and folklore. The character of each individual is real. Their names have been changed; their true identities are only thinly veiled.

This book represents, in no small way, my perception of America and its people. The men who make up the "Committee" have been friends or patients of mine over a period of 31 years of medical practice. The Marine on Guadalcanal was Marlin Ritzel. His name was not changed. He did survive the war.