Some people can't stay out of trouble. Happily married, the father of two precocious nine year old girls, and comfortably off, Max Brown should have it easy. Not yet; that's where the little girls come in. They maneuver Max and his wife into a dangerous treasure hunt through abandoned gold mines. As Max forewarns, "the closer you get to the treasure the more competitors show up, some of whom don't play by the rules." The competitors in this case are seven Klansmen who believe that the object of the treasure hunt, a large cache of Confederate gold, is theirs to finance a second rebellion.Set in northern Georgia, Max combats bears, snakes, and the Klan to protect those he loves. His most cunning and committed adversaries, though, turn out to be his own children.
About the Author: Michael Bernhart is an award winning author who has published extensively on international development and public health - primarily service quality. His credentials for this written outpouring are a PhD (from MIT!) and four decades of international work - currently 50 countries and counting. The journey from writing funding proposals to writing pure fiction was short and easy. The result is the Max Brown tetralogy which traces the arc (from age 10 through 66) of a man who tries to be proactive, but whose behavior is driven by external events. Each of the four novels finds Max struggling with a new existential crisis - or crises - as he grows up in these trying times. Manhood used to be a birthright; now it seems to be an unending series of challenges. Each novel also finds Max confronting a new face of evil. Dr. (why not use it?) Bernhart started this project before the internet could serve up virtual experiences to authors. The contextual information and situations come from service as a pilot in the USAF, living in Asia, Europe and Latin America, and inexplicable success at snaring women well out of his league. These remarkable similarities with the main character noted, he insists the work is not autobiographical. It's wish fulfillment. Bernhart currently lives in a yurt on a mountaintop in northern Georgia with one ex-wife, two daughters, and three cats. He still flies his vintage plane, although more cautiously than before, and he's unshakeable in his conviction that he's God's Gift to Aviation. He keeps a shotgun, not a pistol, for home defense (read the books; you'll see why).