Born in 1944, at the height of World War Two, he is the product of one of the isolated Appalachian coal camps, where mines are hurriedly gouged out of the steep hillsides to supply coal to the mills and factories which produce the implements of war. A bright and inquisitive child, he is concerned with play and exploring the world around him. He attends a one-room school, and engages the world beyond through a plethora of books of ever increasing complexity and range of interests, provided to him by the county Book Mobile, which makes the rounds of the camps. He is raised largely by a hired...

Scientist had long predicted that the volcanic Island of La Palma would someday collapse into the sea, maybe tomorrow or maybe thousands of years in the future. When it does collapse, without warning, it causes a mega-tsunami which devastates the east coast of America, killing millions, destroying cities, including New York and Washington. In the aftermath, a few surviving government officials struggle to reestablish government, and protect the vulnerable country from attack or invasion, while fending off sinister, subversive elements within the government who are attempting a coup d'etat....

This mystery is set in 1983, in the mythical river port town of Stanton, Ohio, on the Ohio River. The small, tourist town is situated in close proximity to ancient Indian burial mounds of the Hopewell Culture. The existence of the burial mounds accounts for an Archaeology Department at the otherwise small Stanton College, and is the reason why no one gets terribly excited when kids find an old moldy skull in the woods. But further investigation turns up the complete skeletons of a man with a gash in his forehead, and a small child. Tests reveal that they have been dead for only thirty years....