About This Book
This edition of Maelstrom was originally published by the author in three separate books as a series, Parts 1 - 3. This is a compiled edition of those books.
Maelstrom is about a sailing adventure that turns into a nightmare. Ryan Cunningham wakes up one day and realizes that the dreams and values he’s pursued and emulated for 37 years are those of his parents and grandparents. There’s nothing wrong with them, they simply aren't his. He sells his house, moves onto his sailboat and decides to go on an aquatic walkabout; sailing first from New England to the Caribbean and then wherever the wind blows him.
Prior to his departure he meets a beautiful, younger, mother of two in recovery, who is trying to put her life back together. When he leaves the dock several weeks later his crew has grown by three to include Tory McCane, her 12-year-old daughter Jan and her 5-year-old son Willy. On the first leg of their trip they survive a two-day storm of hurricane force winds on the way to Bermuda. In Bermuda, they run afoul of an amoral, international drug smuggler named Edward and his mega-yacht full of misfits. Edward is transporting over 180 kilos of cocaine and Ryan vocalizes his suspicions about them to a customs inspector who attempts to take down them down. Edward gets a serious resentment and decides to make their lives a living hell; something he excels at.
Ryan, Tory and the children flee Bermuda in the dead of night and are pursued by Edward and subjected to his full on fury at sea which results in several powerful tragedies. The author of Maelstrom does not always play by the rules, so be warned in advance, you may feel as though you were thrown into a washing machine while reading this book!
Ryan ends up joining forces with a very unlikely ally in the form of a MA State Trooper who lost his wife to a drug overdose, later in the book. Chris is a complicated and lethal character who doesn't really care whether he lives or dies but is determined to avenge his wife's death. He helps Ryan understand how difficult it is to bring people like Edward to justice using legal means. Ryan is a "live and let live" kind of guy. Chris is more of a "live and kill every last one of the cockroaches first" kind of guy and has the skills, training and means to so. The hunted become the hunters and Ryan must decide how far he's willing to go to insure the safety of his new family as they set out to put an end to Edward. Will they succeed and will Ryan be able to right any of the grievous wrongs he's endured, or will he and Chris end up dead or in prison for the rest of their lives?
