Author: DL Havlin
Bio:
An “un-retired” business executive and world traveler has been writing twenty plus years, has won numerous literary awards, and has published thriller, historical, and mainstream/literary novels. Havlin grew up in Florida and considers its slash pines, palms, waters, and sands a blood relative. Many of his novels are set in Florida, are steeped in Florida history, and cover topics of interest to Florida residents.
Book:
Random events and coincidence fashion this story that sits on a knife’s edge between historical fact and historical fiction. The novels subject: the development of a machine that saved thousands of Marines in WW II and the men who were responsible. Real lives of the historical protagonists and the events that shaped them, provide a study in leadership, and what power conviction and purpose provide for those who possess them.
The story shifts to WW I and to the early battle experience of protagonist Holland Smith, the man destined to command the Marines in their conquest of the Pacific Islands in WW II. He sees the horrors and futility of frontal attack and vows to spare troops he commands if he can.
Another kind of war, man’s battle with nature, becomes the catalyst another man’s quest. The killer hurricane of 1928 takes 2000 lives as it devastates the southern shore of Okeechobee. John Roebling, son of the Brooklyn Bridge’s builder, uses the event to inspire his son Donald.
**Submitted by:** GCWA
**Genre:** Historical Fiction