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Book 1 in The Nick Andrews series

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​Like many who join the military to escape a dysfunctional home, Nick Andrews jumps from the frying pan into the fire as war breaks out in Korea the week after he enlists. Safely enrolled at Infantry School where he trains to become an Army Ranger, he’s spared the early defeat of the South Koreans and the Americans. As the war swiftly progresses, he also misses the landing at Inchon that reverses the fortunes of war. However, he arrives in time to join a long-range reconnaissance patrol sent to settle an argument between President Truman and General MacArthur. Will the Chinese intervene? Unfortunately, Nick and his fellow Rangers parachute at night on the heads of the Communist Chinese Army as it crosses the Yalu River into North Korea, and the argument is settled without any need for their report.
     Nick is the lone survivor and must make his way south hoping to outpace the Chinese advance and rejoin the American forces. Forced to follow mountain trails, his pace is slowed but the heights provide him with a vantage point to observe and map enemy fuel and ammo dumps as well as areas where troops shelter during the day to avoid attack by allied warplanes that dominate the skies.
At the Taedong River, Nick dresses as a North Korean and joins refugees carrying war material from a freight train stalled on the north shore to another parked on the opposite shore waiting to carry it further south. An allied warplane attack on the bridge creates confusion allowing Nick to escape the guards, but he picks up a Korean refugee, a young woman from Seoul.
     The woman, an American-educated doctor, becomes the first of Nick’s band of refugees fleeing from war as Nick flees towards it. It’s hard to distinguish the difference inasmuch as war surrounds them.
     The Accidental Spy is historically based fiction. Fictional characters observe and participate in historical events without altering the course or outcome of those events. The Korean War is often referred to as the Forgotten War, but the plight of the refugees, a central theme of the novel, hasn’t been forgotten. Indeed, it never became known to be forgotten.
     The arc of Nick’s story is the journey from boyhood to manhood, from trainee to blooded warrior, from innocence to survivor’s guilt. ​