THE SHORT STORIES IN THIS COLLECTION range from the rural midwest to a small town in the deep south to the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico to the back-country trout streams of Michigan and a steamy jungle in Southeast Asia. In these stories, a woman goes about her morning chores on the farm she and her husband have shared and worked for more than 50 years. But this morning he seems to be sleeping longer than usual. An elderly woman is last seen on a soggy, dreary day by two of her neighbors who are playing checkers on a porch. Neither of the men ostensibly know her all that well, but maybe one knows her better than he lets on. There's also a pair of tales of warm friendship that necessarily takes a sharp turn down a dark path. Finally you'll live with a sniper team out to get the guy they've been hunting, and who's been hunting them, for several days. Who knew trout fishing on a wild river in the deep woods of America could so strongly affect an intense, deadly mission? If you enjoy Papa Hemingway's descriptive narrative, you will enjoy these short stories.