The Raft

Chuck Warfield, son of a Pennsylvania coal miner, is haunted by two traumas: his fateful WWII bombing mission over Ploesti and the sudden death of his wife soon after their post-war marriage. Struggling to overcome his lingering depression, he moves to Florida to find a new life and meets Scotty Malcolm, the ebullient captain of a luxurious yacht, the Regalia. When Scotty invites Chuck to join him on his next trip as first mate, Chuck accepts and unwittingly becomes involved in smuggling a huge, mystery-shrouded diamond to the Cayman Islands. His trip is further complicated by Nicole, the beautiful and disgustingly spoiled daughter of the captain. The aura of secrecy surrounding the gemstone swiftly mounts, heightening Chuck's curiosity about its origin and identity. When strange incidents begin to occur on the Regalia, he grows fearful for the safety of those on board, and soon finds himself in the middle of high drama at sea. His journey is one you won't soon forget. Edward Russell is the pen name of the author. Born and raised in suburban Baltimore, he earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Baltimore, where he also attended law school. Most of his long government career, he worked in Washington, D.C. for the US Treasury Department. Upon his retirement, he and his wife moved across the Chesapeake Bay to the serenity of Maryland's beautiful eastern shore. Widowed in 1999, he now lives there with his spunky Scottish terrier, Gus. Years of drafting and editing highly technical administrative rulings, plus a Pisces mentality, made him yearn for the creative freedom of writing fiction. "The Raft" is his first novel.