The Fifth Bear Hug

The Fifth Bear Hug is a continuation of the stories in The Bear Hug, The Final Bear Hug, The Third Bear Hug, and The Fourth Bear Hug. The story in the latter book begins with Dr. John James Czermak wanting to start a new life because he was responsible for his third wife getting murdered. He retires from Clemson University, sells his two homes in South Carolina, and moves to Colorado. John then starts working as a part-time professor at the University of Colorado and shares an office with a visiting professor from Moscow. Lara Medvedev and John start traveling together to meetings, and a loving relationship develops. They attend a conference in Sweden, followed by an expedition on a ship down the coast of Norway. From Oslo, they fly to Saint Petersburg, followed by a train ride to Moscow so John can meet Lara’s parents. After their arrival in Moscow, John visits a good friend at the Academy of Sciences, where they go to the roof of a tall academy building so John can take some pictures. Then Alexei, who believes Czermak killed his brother and two nephews, shows up and tries to push John off the building, but instead, he falls to his death. Since John now thinks no one is trying to murder him, he asks Lara to marry him. She happily agrees. A few days later, they have a wedding reception at the home of Lara’s parents. After the party ends and everyone has left, Lara’s ex-husband arrives to kill John but accidentally kills Lara.

In The Fifth Bear Hug, John returns to Colorado, sells his home in Nederland, and moves to Denver. Kim Carn, a CIA agent, contacts John and asks for his help on a few missions to gather intelligence for the CIA as he had done when he was at Clemson University. Kim is also on the lookout for the person who murdered her husband, who was the CIA bureau chief at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev. She suspects he was killed because he had obtained embarrassing information concerning a White House request for the Ukraine government to find damaging information on a leading presidential candidate who was a former American ambassador to the Ukraine. The White House knows that Kim now has the information. She narrowly escapes being killed by a CIA-hired assassin who had murdered her husband. The story ends with Kim’s car being blown up by the assassin with John inside the car instead of Kim.

Globe-trotters should especially enjoy reading about some of the author’s travels to various places in the world.