Abandoned

Retired physician Addison Wolfe is amazed to read the name Jimmy Byrnes in the newspaper. He is more flabbergasted to read that an attempted murder occurred in his friend’s name. Both men served on an aircraft carrier off the coast of North Vietnam in 1967. Wolfe transferred to a different carrier when the USS Oriskany returned to the United States. His friend stayed onboard the Oriskany. Wolfe never again heard from his friend after reporting to the USS Ranger. Over the years he assumed Byrnes had been discharged from the navy, gone to college, gotten a job, and raised a family. Forty-seven years later, it appears that the young man he knew may have committed suicide days after their paths diverged. Or, possibly, Byrnes was a victim of foul play. The facts in the attempted murder case don’t make sense. Then a retired chief implicates the dead Byrnes in several deaths. Wolfe shakes off retirement doldrums to investigate. He goes in search of Jimmy Byrnes’s family and his legacy. Wolfe wants to know precisely what happened to the man who talked him into applying to medical school.