DARK SIDE OF THE RIVER

Surviving the mean streets of New Orleans in 1956, young Tim Kelly begins a young Indiana Jones style adventure by lying about his age to join the Coast Guard at the tender age of fourteen.

His adventure takes him to Vietnam where he is awarded the Silver Star medal which is overshadowed by his less than honorable discharge for releasing his rage in an Air Force officer's club taking revenge for Air Force 'friendly fire' that killed three of his friends.

Returning home, he is faced with the dilemma of betrayal of an old friend who - although he is a ruthless drug cartel boss - has saved his life on more than one occasion - his decision leads him to the shadow world of drug and human trafficking - and after his cover is blown - he survives torture to be rescued just in the nick of time.

After his rescue, everything seems to be going well - Tim and his soul mate Brenda are scheduled to marry - but before that happens Brenda and her best friend the spirited young daughter of the Governor of Texas are kidnapped by the cartel and spirited away to a secret island base off the coast of Yucatan - will Tim be able to save them in time?

A Bio-terrorist Dr. Heinrich Fleischer enters the picture to develop a deadly strain of respiratory Anthrax the ruthless Campeche drug cartel intends to use against the other Latin American cartels to gain control of the cocaine and heroin trafficking in the U.S. and Canada.

Fleischer, acquires a tactical nuclear device which he plants in a major U.S. port - using the threat to blackmail the President of the U.S. - detonation of the device in a major American port would devastate the world's economy for decades.

Jim Gilliam ran away from home just before his fourteenth birthday. He lied about his age and enlisted in the Coast Guard at the tender age of 14 - he has been an Army paratrooper and retired in 2010 from the Navy's Military Sealift Command as a shipboard medical service officer. He lives in Warwick, New York, with his wife Laura. This is his fourth novel.