Pop's Place

Book excerpt: Based in part on the life and times of World War II US Navy dive-bomber hero Rear Admiral John Blitch, Jackson "Pop" Harrison returns from the war to his ancestral homestead on Sullivan's Island near Charleston, South Carolina where he finds himself without family... except those in the family plot under the spreading oak tree. There, like so many other Americans who had survived years of intense conflict, he goes about picking up the pieces of his shattered life while haunted by nightmares of his childhood and military combat. Almost immediately upon hanging up the shingle on "Pop's Place," the family residence-turned-boarding-house, Pop is immersed in adventure after adventure with romance and betrayal, life and death, challenges and victories, and the drama of post-war low country. Confident in battle as a warrior, Pop is curious in discovering that he is suddenly unsure of himself outside the cockpit-particularly with his best friend's beautiful young daughter who has matured while he was away at war. Though he narrowly escaped countless close calls in a war that claimed the lives of so many others, true to his selflessness, courage and strength of character, Pop decides between life and making the ultimate sacrifice for the one he loves.