Kevin, Luke, and Moxie thought their biggest problem was making it to the next chess tournament. That is, until they accidentally stumble onto a plot involving Russian diplomats and a secret scheme to buy the Cherokee National Forest and turn it into the biggest shopping mall in the history of the world. Now they’re dodging spies, saving the forest, and somehow they are counting on Julian Assange to expose it all.
Vladimir Putin is so furious that he throws a Rembrandt through the front window of his dacha, the president is calling them enemies of the people, and three Russian diplomats—each named after a renowned Russian grandmaster—are ready to crush them in more ways than one. But the amigos won’t go down without a fight. Armed with nothing but quick wits, an iPad that they won fair and square from the Russians in a gambling chess match, and Moxie’s impressive self-defense moves (double ear slap included), they upload the truth to WikiLeaks and race to the anthrax-laden showdown brewing at a chess tournament in London.
It’s a wild adventure that takes them from the depths of the Cherokee National Forest to the high-stakes streets of London. With international intrigue, laugh-out-loud moments, and a few well-timed chess moves, this trio is ready for anything. Can they outwit the Russians and save the day—or will they be checkmated?
Perfect for fans of action-packed spy comedies, international chess showdowns and encounters with bears… with a dash of ecological mayhem. For readers of all ages (at least those who know what is going on in the world).
Donald Vowell grew up on a lumberyard in Martin, Tennessee. He learned how to play chess from a travelling salesman and then graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a degree in political science. Favorite activity in college: hopping freight trains. He worked as a deckhand on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, being promoted to mate on his last run after the real mate, the cook and the engineer got drunk in Cincinnati and refused to return to the boat. He went to law school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he met THE GIRL and is still married to her to this day. They have two sons, both born in Guatemala. He coached their soccer and chess teams and has been to an estimated one million chess tournaments, not to mention a lot of soccer games. They have a labradoodle named Snoopy and, believe it or not, four cats, whose names will not be listed for lack of space. He enjoys playing fetch with Snoopy and spending time in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He maintains six birdhouses and has converted the family’s swimming pool into a very successful frog pond. When he is not writing young adult fiction, or playing pickleball, he is an appellate lawyer in Knoxville.