Row Well and Live

About the Book

Just after the Bay of Pigs, America is still in a time of national innocence before the murder in Dallas and the horrors of Viet Nam. The two superpowers are focused on Cuba. As a clandestine missile buildup take place on the island, secret agents play a desperate game in Washington to gauge the response of the Kennedy administration.

Into this volatile situation stumbles, Jack Norton, a history student who finds himself threatened by both sides while in amorous pursuit during that intoxicating season of Camelot. Coming to Washington to find a summer job and taking up lodgings in an antique rooming house, Jack discovers that the old building exudes a spectral air, suggesting times long past, illicit sex and hints of dangerous secrets. During sweltering summer nights, he feels that he has stepped backward in time. Jack and his girlfriend, Darcy, begin to explore the constantly shifting currents of sensual titillation and suspicions of international intrigue.

From fleeting daydreams, restless midnight fantasies and half-hidden historical puzzles, Jack conjures up an ongoing fantasy figure to deal with the situation: the world's first superspy, Sidney Reilly. As the young lovers are drawn more tightly into the web of danger and intrigue, Jack's fantasies dramatically take on concrete form.

About the Author

Although a native Kentuckian, James Haley was educated in Virginia at Hampden-Sydney College and lived in Washington, D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis and at the height of the Cold War. He went on to receive graduate training at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and at the University of California at San Francisco where he conducted medical research for many years. Mr. Haley writes, sleeps, eats and has his being with his wife, Ann, and beloved Airedale Terriers at their home in the central coast mountains of California, a land flowing with milk and honey.