A moonlit surprise. An assault and failed attempt at murder takes place on a boat at anchor in a quiet cove on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. Robert Chappell wants a relaxing, autumn weekend on the Bay. He has his boat, Jupiter , for adventure and shelter, and his girlfriend, Edith, for company. As he searches for why the attack happened, Chappell relies on his experience as a journalist to contend with police and dodgy, dark characters on the Chesapeake’s Western and Eastern Shores. He weaves his way among lethal threats while dealing with unusual circumstances from his girlfriend’s divorce, her work as an analyst for the National Security Agency, and other lives she leads apart from him. For decades Jim Sayler has lived up to his last name by boating under sail and power on Chesapeake Bay. Sailing offers him a way of life that has given him a break from duress when he worked as a writer, starting as a cub reporter for the "Washington Star". Sayler's study of human nature continued as an analyst for Congress, employed by "Congressional Quarterly". Then, he began a 30-year career on Capitol Hill with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, becoming a senior analyst and editor. Sayler took a break from Capitol Hill as a journalist-research writer for the "New York Times"; a trade book editor for "Reader's Digest's Funk and Wagnalls"; and then writing radio news for the Columbia Broadcasting System's NewsRadio 88 in New York City. Altogether, with a few lethal risks, a career of adventure