Dangerous Waters has all the ingredients for a gripping undersea adventure: Ferocious sharks, friendly dolphins, nefarious criminals, and enough chemistry between a sexy heroine and a bold, but sensitive, NYPD detective to spark romance in the steamy Caribbean. 

The perfect book to take along on your next vacation, or just to enjoy reading under a beach umbrella! 

Terry Hunter is determined to overcome whatever obstacles life throws her way. After her world is changed by a brutal shark attack while diving with a research expedition off the California coast, Terry struggles to rebuild her life in Cozumel, Mexico, where she becomes a successful businesswoman, running her own dive operation.

But the waters turn dangerous for Terry once again, when she unwittingly uncovers a drug smuggling scheme and becomes entwined in an international investigation, risking her life to help a New York detective solve a baffling case.

 “Reading Dangerous Waters is almost as good as scuba diving. The book delivers adventure, suspense, thrills and romance, along with plenty of underwater action. The main characters, Terry Hunter and Joe Manetta, are appealing and attractive; totally modern yet with a touch of old fashioned values. This is an excellent novel for both divers and non-divers.”

Bonnie J. Cardone, former editor of Skin Diver Magazine, author of Shipwrecks of Southern California and Fireside Diver.

Paul J. Mila retired after a successful corporate career and now devotes his time to writing, scuba diving, underwater photography and speaking to groups about ocean conservation.  He has enjoyed the opportunity to photograph and dive with Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas, humpback whales in the Dominican Republic and Tonga Islands, South Pacific, and an amazing variety of sea life in the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Hawaii, Antigua and Bonaire. 

His underwater pictures have been featured on web sites related to scuba diving. He is a N.A.U.I. certified advanced diver and has a P.A.D.I. certification as an Underwater Naturalist. 

In pursuing a writing career, he has followed the advice of writers who said to write about what you know and like.  Consequently, he has incorporated the ocean and diving as the core of his writing.  Diving in the same waters as the characters in his book enables him to write with realism, and to describe the beauty and wonder of  our undersea world for non-diving readers.

He and his family reside in Carle Place, New York, a small town on Long Island. 

You can contact Paul via email at pjmila@hotmail.com

Back on the boat, they were all ecstatic about what they had just experienced.  Terry had never seen Mark so animated.  “Did you see the action between that sucker and me?” Mark exclaimed, as he pantomimed jabbing at an invisible shark with an imaginary club.  They all had a good laugh and broke for lunch on the stern of the boat before their next dive. 

While eating, they noticed a commotion in the water about a quarter of a mile off the stern.  They looked over to see a large group of sea lions frantically swimming toward the shore of a distant island.  Suddenly they saw the body of a large great white explode vertically out of the water, with a sea lion firmly clamped in its jaws.  They watched in stunned silence as the shark fell back into the water still holding its prize; there were a few ripples, then nothing.  It was over as quickly as that.  After a few moments the silence was broken by Stan, who said quietly, “Another of our nicknames for ’em is, White Death.”

The sea lions had sensed that a shark was stalking them from below and most made it to safety before the shark had taken a straggler, by using a classic great white hunting technique: swimming below the chosen prey, using its counter-shading for camouflage, then, at the appropriate moment, when escape was impossible, shoot up vertically and capture the unfortunate victim in its jaws, immediately killing or incapacitating it. No one said anything for a few seconds as they watched a red slick of blood slowly dissipate, because, instinctively, each knew what the others were thinking: that a swimmer or someone paddling on a surf board would have had no chance at all against the violence of that type of attack. 

“WOW!” Eric finally said.  Mark knew that this hunting behavior was seen in some white shark populations but not others.  Why? Was this instinct or a learned behavior?  Could white sharks teach hunting techniques to their young?  Not likely.  Sharks do not have a reputation as doting parents. Did sharks observe and imitate the successful hunting tactics of other sharks?  Mark discussed his thoughts with Terry and suggested that they tackle this as a future research project after this trip was completed.

The dive plan for the second dive was for Mark and Stan to reverse roles.  Stan would be the “bait” and Mark would cover his back.  Eric and Terry would continue to serve at photographers, remaining inside the cage.  Terry had no desire to be with sharks outside the safe confines of the cage and Eric was on the team because he was a highly regarded underwater photographer, who had a definite aversion to deliberately putting himself in harm’s way.

This time they had to wait almost thirty minutes for the first shark to appear.  Stan moved into position, with Mark covering his flank.  Everything went smoothly at first. The shark circled, Stan and Mark rotated accordingly.  The shark made a pass and Stan deflected it with the shark club.  It came in again . . .wait; that was too soon for it to be in position to return. Then they realized it was not one, but a pair of blue sharks.  This was why the second diver was in the water.  Mark moved so he was positioned back-to-back with Stan, air tanks clanking against each other.  Now they could watch both sharks and visually cover a 360-degree radius.   

They fended off the sharks while Terry and Eric documented the action.  Now there was a problem.  They had already been underwater for over 30 minutes before the sharks had appeared and Mark was running low on air, only 700psi remaining.  During a momentary lull in the action he signaled Stan to check his air gauge.  He was not much better off, at 900psi.  If the sharks didn’t leave soon they would have to break their defensive formation, making them vulnerable, then try to get back into the cage as quickly as possible.