The River

Truth… how can you find it in a world filled with deception? Jack Slack is back, feet on the ground, trying to drain the political swamp while preserving a real one—the Grand Kankakee Marsh. But the battle between Illinois and Indiana over water policy in the Kankakee River Basin thrusts Jack into the heart of a scandal that reaches the pinnacle of national politics: the financing of a presidential campaign. Will Jack be able to save the Grand Kankakee Marsh? Or will he fall victim to a corruption so politically entrenched, it threatens his life?

Truth… how can you find it in a world filled with deception? Jack Slack is back, feet on the ground, trying to drain the political swamp while preserving a real one—the Grand Kankakee Marsh. But the battle between Illinois and Indiana over water policy in the Kankakee River Basin thrusts Jack into the heart of a scandal that reaches the pinnacle of national politics: the financing of a presidential campaign. Will Jack be able to save the Grand Kankakee Marsh? Or will he fall victim to a corruption so politically entrenched, it threatens his life? Jack’s been having a tough time. Not only has he been expelled from the University of Chicago, his boss has fired him at least five times and Anna, the love of his life, is at the end of her rope. When Jack’s boss gives him the task of appeasing the local population and negotiating an interstate water agreement between Illinois and Indiana, all he can see is the potential for failure. But he has no choice. He must make this project work. But his approach constitutes a very real threat to the old-school ways of the Indiana farmers and politicians. His actions threaten to expose a conspiracy rooted in a sitting US Senator. The Senator is a presidential hopeful, and this scheme is the basis of his campaign funding strategy. Is it motivation enough to kill Jack? The River is the third installment in the Jack Slack Shoebox Dialogue series. Using a dialogue style inspired by Elmore Leonard and an intellectual scope inspired by Plato's Socratic dialogues, this series offers modern fiction readers exciting stories with engaging action scenes, touching romance scenes, and satisfying plot turns. It offers serious readers intense intellectual content intended to stimulate questions, challenges, and further dialogue. Like the Socratic dialogues, this series moves from one significant philosophical question to another as it moves through its books. The River, with its foundation in questions of truth and scientific proof, offers the epistemological and heuristic basis of the series.

George Benda grew up in the Chicago area and studied at the University of Chicago during the 1970s. A lifelong environmentalist, George has led both public agencies and private companies in the pursuit of a sustainable world. His personal mission from his late teen years on has been to create modern philosophical dialogues that will help right the human relationship with our natural world. The River is the third in a series of books George has in preparation to fulfill that mission.