Bear: Dead Reckoning

In total darkness in the 1960s, an American Coast Guard icebreaker, the Cutter "Bear," escorts a thin-hulled WWII Liberty ship through the high Arctic ice to provide supplies and rescue beleaguered Air Force personnel at fire-ravaged Thule Air Force Base, near the North Pole. After a collision in the ice, south of Thule, the Liberty ship breaks in half and sinks, but not before ramming the icebreaker. Holed and afire, the crew abandons ship in -66 degree weather, high winds, and darkness, leaving behind a sole sailor, left for dead with a badly broken arm. As the ship starts to sink, and grow more frigid by the moment, the sailor must survive the cold, starvation, and Polar bears that have come aboard the dying icebreaker.

J.A. Greenleaf is a former sailor, Polar explorer, military officer, policeman and lawyer. He is a Michigan Master Lawyer. His vast experience was essential to write the complex story of Ulliam and Máire, lovers in ancient Ireland who died in Donegal Castle as it burned in 1589. The novel spans 400 years of both Irish and world history, events of great interest to Joe. He personally investigated the facts of each event as the couple reincarnated through the centuries, careful that the circumstances and locales were historically accurate. He published "Real Irish Fairies of Donegal," a color photographic 8"x10" book, with background and local information, depicting real fairies J.A. Greenleaf both saw and photographed in Co Donegal, Ireland, at Malin Head. XYY: The Dead of Winter, is Joe's newest novel, a legal thriller, will be followed by a sequel, "The Glass Cart," scheduled for publication in 2015. He has several university degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Juris Doctor, and a Master of Law in Information Technology & Telecommunications Law. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He presently is studying for a second Masters of Law, in Intellectual Property. He is a member of the Irish Writers' Union. Keith Houghton, best-selling author on Amazon.com, recently wrote of J.A. Greenleaf's "XYY: The Dead of Winter" "An adrenaline-fed legal thriller, as slick as a souped-up sports car charging down the fast lane."