Graveyard Spiral

About the Book

High school adversaries, modest Pete Delaney and cynical Roman Gessler, forge an unlikely bond. Roman mysteriously disappears after graduation, but they meet again when he rescues Pete after his Phantom is shot down over Laos. Roman, now a Navy SEAL using an alias, denies they know each other. He leaves on another rescue mission hoping that his deception has not been uncovered, while Pete returns to his aircraft carrier puzzled at his old friend's behavior. They leave the military deeply scarred by the war and choose vastly different careers. Pete becomes a writer and Roman an assassin for a secret vigilante organization. Both complicate their lives with relationships involving beautiful, self-assured women. While Roman is on the run for murder, he hijacks Pete's Cessna 182 and orders him to fly far out over the Gulf of Mexico. The cramped cockpit soon becomes the arena for a contest of survival. During their death struggle they enter a graveyard spiral, and one is thrown from the aircraft. But the lone occupant in the cockpit may not be the victor after all. His fight for survival has only begun.

About the Author

Colonel R. L. Upchurch served thirty-one years as a US Marine Corps pilot, flying propeller A-I Skyraiders off carriers in the western Pacific and A-4 Skyhawk jet attack aircraft in Vietnam. He now lives in Point Clear, Alabama with his wife, Providence, and volunteers as a tour guide at the National Museum ofNaval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. He has written three other books: With Flying Colors, The Confessions ora NavCad: Taming the Taildragger: and Meet the Mulligans.