Who’s the “John Doe”

What if you discovered your name was reported in the local newspaper as the identity of a drowning victim. Would you call the authorities to correct their error?
Now imagine you are in debt to sports gambling bookies and loan sharks. Your life is at risk. A mistaken identity could be your salvation and escape these ruthless vultures. Hmmm. What to do? What to do?
Meet Dan Driscoll—for a short while, anyway. He’s about to become a ghost, an imposter, a chameleon. He has more than just gambling debts to hide from. A LOT more.
Unbeknownst to Dan, there are two people who are privy to his deceptions. Regrettably, one of them becomes a casualty of war.

This leaves Clare Miller, an investigative journalist, relentlessly uncovering leads to find Dan and turn him in. All she has to track him down with is a newspaper photo—with a different name.

Was Clare conned into a conspiracy to mislead her? After all, the only other person who can corroborate who Dan is and her story is dead.

The Storyline

This historical fiction begins in 1941. It weaves its mystery around a plethora of places, true stories and events that actually happened in West Michigan from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Two high school buddies and teammates from Shelby, Michigan … Stan Neumann and Dan Driskoll … lead lives after graduation that evolve into polar opposites, and ultimately crash head on into each other at Pearl Harbor during WWII.

It will take you on their journeys from a small enclave of summer cottages on the shores of Lake Michigan all the way to the western Pacific Ocean aboard the USS Enterprise, and ultimately circle back to Whiskey Creek where you meet five boys spending summer vacation at Mich-Chi-Won Beach. While exploring an abandoned army camp, they discover a long-lost secret.

The Author

Mark G. Bearss resides in the small Central Minnesota community of Crosslake. He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and spent summers along the east shore of Lake Michigan where the local history behind this story is uncovered and comes alive.

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