Looking back after a distinguished career as an aerospace engineer, Homer H. Hickam tells the story of his childhood in Coalwood, West Virginia.

Soon after paleontologist Norman "Pick" Pickford happens on a discovery in Montana that could prove to be revolutionary, a menacing visitor is murdered and Mike Wire, retired L.A. homicide detective and ranch foreman, realizes that the fossils may be worth killing for.

It's 1943 and World War II rages on. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific. But the young Americans go up against fanatical defenders, who revel in snipers, big guns, and human wave attacks from which there is no escape save death. Critically wounded, Josh expects to die. Instead, Sister Mary Kathleen,...

Recounts the deadly U-boat action off the North Carolina coast in the early days of World War II.