Grave Mistakes

A thriller that joins a new theory of the peopling of America by explorers from Europe 18,000 years ago with a modern story of a serial murderer. The novel is set in Williamsburg and rural Tidewater Virginia.

Fein, chief of a prehistoric clan in Iberia, leads his band of explorers to North America 18,000 years ago. After withstanding a frigid voyage in open boats, they travel up a river and settle in a wooded area that is now rural Tidewater Virginia. There they live, die and, over the generations, populate the New World, leaving scant traces of their existence.

The story rockets forward to modern times with the murder of Kelly, a young anthropologist who has disappeared, captured by a sexual predator. Her fiancé, Williamsburg archaeologist Rick Fallon, has struggled to put the mystery of Kelly behind him. Instead, he has taken on an investigation that thrusts her back into his life alongside a victim from the remotest American past.

This story reveals with archaeological precision an exciting new theory of the peopling of America interlaced with a series of modern-day murders, violent horrors, death and unanticipated bravery.

I'm a ninth-generation Maryland native who knows and loves history. I attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia where I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1964. After college, I enjoyed a thirty-three year career at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. In my Navy career, I achieved recognition for innovative work that was widely published. My collaboration with Naval test pilots and engineers spanned virtually every facet of the aircraft flight test work at the Patuxent Navy base. I served as the Executive Director of the Naval Air Station during my last three years with the Navy.

Along the way, I studied local history and published numerous articles in magazines and in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s, a publication of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society. My first book-length work was the popular A Most Convenient Place, Leonardtown, Maryland 1650-1950, which has gone into the second printing.

My first novel, A Matter of Space, reflects my strong affection for the important work done by the Navy at Patuxent River Naval Air Station and the equally important work of the archaeologists, historians, interpreters and staff at Historic St. Mary’s City.

My wife Ann and I live in Williamsburg, Virginia. I'm currently working on a series of children’s stories and a third novel.