Jack Peredur, a New Jersey native, at age 21 moved to South Carolina to pursue higher education at Calhoun University. There he met and became a close friend of the so-called Ravenwood Thirteen. Stunned by the loss of the Thirteen in the Ravenwood Disaster, Jack found himself unable to complete his Master’s Thesis in chemistry at Calhoun but began keeping diaries instead as a form of home-grown psychotherapy. Changing careers he then became a licensed handyman and builder: first as an employee of Homefixers based in Seven Oaks, and later as its owner. Since retiring and selling Homefixers in 2007 Jack has devoted himself to travel, research in fields more abstruse than chemistry, refurbishing the old farmhouse and outbuildings near Belvedere which now form the Ravenstead, building an ever-growing network of friends and colleagues, and using those diaries and other sources to create the Ravenwood Series, of which this book is a part. Jack currently lives at the Ravenstead with his wife, the former Suzanne Marat of Mortagne, France, creator of the Midnight Confections line of intimate apparel; a close-knit group of human friends; and a varying cast of rescued dogs, cats and other “critters.” Jack can be reached by e-mail through the contact page at www.Ravenwood.Associates.