Pilot Vincent Ten Ponies has no problems when he is flying. But when he lands, his shady and eccentric employer Clive MacLeod gives him all he can handle. Forced to work with a college dropout couple recruited into Clive's Caribbean "import/export venture," it falls to Vince to keep the naive giant Jim alive, his ambitious, dysfunctional girlfriend Macy in check, and all of them out of prison. In just a few more months he can buy his own plane and be free to work for himself-if his boss and new co-workers don't get him killed first. Nadir's Fire is a fast-moving action-adventure reminiscent of Jack London's The Sea Wolf. The style is much like B. Traven's The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Author Daniel Bell writes in a ruthlessly convincing way about drug and gun running. His insight into human nature makes his characters come frighteningly to life and the story line has an artful pacing that turns the book into a breathless page turner. Bell's first novel reads like a true story. The whispered tone of societal and moral decay provides a perfect literary perspective on our not-so-perfect times. It may be a genre novel, but it is also a fine literary work for anyone except perhaps the faintest of hearts. -William Allen, Pulitzer nominee and author of Starkweather: Inside the Mindof a Teenage Killer Daniel Bell's prose is as tense as flexed muscle, the characters are drawn in quick fine-pointed strokes, and the action hums with menace. Nadir's Fire is a fast ride down the slippery back alleys of paradise, and an impressive debut by a sure-handed writer. -Randall Silvis, Author of the acclaimed fabulist novel In a Town Called Mundomuerto Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner and author/screenwriter of the novel/movie An Occasional Hell. Daniel Bell is a sometime author and full time ne'er-do-well hiding on a cattle farm in northeast Ohio. He has never finished a college degree, never been married, never held a job for more than a year and almost never been in jail. He has been a factory worker, farm hand, painter, field biologist, carpenter, bartender, bad credit risk, "unlicensed pharmaceutical distributor," deck hand, waiter, drunk, scuba instructor, karate teacher, soldier, bouncer, cook, redneck handgun target, caffeine addict, weightlifting coach, satyr, cuckold and serial exaggerator. He fears success, failure, commitment, abandonment and small, yappy dogs. He is not a pilot, yacht captain or currently under indictment. Dan is half-heartedly at work on his second novel between hay baling, fence repair, dark periods of self-doubt and reflection upon a misspent life.