Happily married with two beautiful children, successful architect and avid amateur aviator Allan Daniels finds his life plummeting into a nightmare when his wife suddenly announces that she wants a separation, maybe a divorce. Then, two days later, as he is piloting a seaplane from Long Island to Key West, the engine of his Cessna 185 seaplane sputters, then quits. Daniels's resolute skills as a pilot enable him to land safely in the Everglades, where a disheveled Miccosukee man named Tommy Handley finds him. But while Handley turns out to be from the same tribe as Daniels's mother, he also turns out to be a fugitive from justice, hiding out and evading capture in the protection of the remote swamps. When Daniels wakes in the middle of the night to find Handley groping for his wallet, Daniels defends himself--but accidentally kills his rescuer, then flees in his boat, from which locals later rescue him again. Daniels's explanation of what happened in the swamp doesn't sit well with savvy local lawman Sheriff Haskins, who suspects that Daniels is hiding something--but what? When Daniels finally confesses his guilt, it will set off a whole new chain of dire events in this fast-paced novel with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the final page....

For almost half a century, Donald Everett Axinn has been writing poetry in which, as Jay Parini notes in his introduction, Òthe stamp of individualityÑthe personal voice of the poetÑlives on every page.Ó A seasoned pilot, as well as a poet and novelist, Axinn revels as much in viewing the world from above as he lovingly, though often wryly, surveys the scene around him here below. Whether in his charming love poems, his delight in the evolving seasons, or his search to understand people and placesÑand indeed himselfÑAxinn offers a fresh look at the world through the eyes of a constantly questing, and questioning, poet. ÒHere is a man,Ó writes Parini, Òwho has looked at the world from many angles . . . with a sense of gathering wisdom.Ó...