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THROUGHOUT HIS CHILDHOOD, MIKE O’CONNOR’S FAMILY PRETENDED TO BE NORMAL. BUT THE CHILDREN DID NO KNOW ABOUT THE FEDERAL AGENTS WHO WERE PURSUING THE FAMILY.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY OF WHAT HAPPENS TO A FAMILY WHEN THEIR GOVERNMENT TURNS FALSE ACCUSATIONS ABOUT PEOPLE’S POLITICAL BELIEFS INTO CRIMES.

But Mike and his two younger sisters knew that their parents were hiding something—a secret they didn’t dare talk about. The family appeared to be no different from any of their small-town Texas neighbors—that is, until suddenly the O’Connors would flee, leaving with only a few hours’ notice, abandoning houses and pets and possessions and running across the border to Mexico.

For all of Mike’s adolescence, O’Connor family life alternated between relative comfort and abject poverty— sometimes within a matter of days. The moves came as the parents felt the slightest threat that government agents were close. Even the imagined threats.  From living in a suburban Texas home to living in two rented rooms in an impoverished Mexican village, the O’Connors children never knew what lay ahead—only that they must not draw attention to themselves.

Though their parents steadfastly denied it, the children knew that something was chasing them—a past that hovered like an invisible enemy, always waiting to strike, always in pursuit.

But it was not until much later, after his parents’ deaths, that Mike O’Connor, now an investigative reporter, was able to uncover the truth about his family’s past. As the secrets were unlocked one by one and the long trail of deception unfurled, Mike faced the heart-wrenching ramifications of his parents’ actions.

Full of astonishing details of a life lived on both sides of the border, in near-poverty and near-wealth, Mike O’Connor’s account is a real-life suspense story of childhood mysteries and strange circumstances that will enthrall readers to its very end.