In his riveting first novel, If I Were an Eagle, David Hale takes us on a journey through the life of a young girl coming of age in the mountains of Tennessee. In Southern Appalachia Karen Quincy, daughter of devout, Southern Baptist parents, was a beautiful young girl, well endowed for her age, and she attracted the attention of the most popular guy in school. Her boyfriend headed off for college, leaving her behind to bear the burden of her condition all alone. Hale spins a tale of woe, for not since the Perils of Pauline has so much misfortune befallen a young damsel, in so short a time....

It's 1969 and a young soldier is in a life or death situation in Vietnam, and half way around the world, an elderly man by the name of Harvey Beason is alone and dying of cancer. Haunted by his past and the birth of an illegitimate child 20 some years earlier, he can do some good if he can find this person and make them his heir. He boldly hires a detective named Patrick Henry a tough ex-cop, who begins his search and finds himself surprisingly embroiled in a international conspiracy of gigantic proportions, which is much more than he bargained for.