The author, seen here at Lucerne while vacationing in the Bernese Oberland, has spent his main career in education. His published writings include four collections of poetry, some serial fiction, travel journalism and a travel memoir, South of Lapland, relating impressions of Northern Finland. He draws on his extensive travels in Europe as background for this intriguing spy-detective novel set aboard a Danube River cruise during the Communist era, evoking the characteristic period atmosphere of Budapest, Belgrade and Bucharest. Married, with three grown children, he is currently living in New England.