Chilly Winds

2021 American Fiction Award Winner in Adventure: General

Taz Blackwell, former environmental negotiator and now a trouble-seeking drinker and romantic charmer, tries to find a new life and love against a backdrop of espionage, corporate plunderers, and devious diplomats.

Escaping a failed marriage, Taz moves to the island of Chincoteague on Virginia's Atlantic Coast, where he explores friendships with a cast of small-town misfits and romance with a beautiful but wary divorcee. Meanwhile, he fights a corporate land grab on the shore and a shady billion-dollar mining play in the international Arctic.

Why is a Chinese mining conglomerate stealing the land underneath a traditional black community on Virginia's Eastern Shore? Why is the Russian ambassador to Iceland trying to open southern Greenland to mining? Why does Taz interest the ambassador's beautiful mistress? The answers are in Chilly Winds, a tour de force that will appeal to mystery lovers, adventure addicts, and espionage fans everywhere.

Over three decades, Brooks Birdwell Yeager has led national campaigns for the American conservation community, negotiated global environmental treaties at the State Department, and advised the eight-nation Arctic Council. His publications include articles in Sierra and Audubon magazines and essays regarding environmental policy and politics. In his work travels to the Russian Far East, Brazil, South Africa, Jordan, and the circumpolar Arctic, he sampled and enjoyed local music, cuisine, and folkways to get a proper sense of each place. Brooks lives on Chincoteague Island on Virginia's Atlantic Coast. He is a man of catholic interests. When he's not writing, he likes to play guitar, watch birds, read philosophy and obscure books of history, cook, and listen to all kinds of music.