A newspaper obituary is supposed to close a life, but for Dan Driscoll, seeing his own death in print looks remarkably like an escape hatch. Buried in gambling debt and caught in the aftermath of violence, he has every reason to disappear—and suddenly the world is prepared to believe he already has. In Cain’s Chameleon, Mark G. Bearss follows the consequences of that decision from the shores of Lake Michigan into the upheaval of World War II, where secrets carried from home refuse to remain safely in the past.
Behind the fiction is an equally intriguing piece of history: Bearss developed the story after finding separate newspaper accounts of an attempted murder near his family’s summer cottage and a drowning victim discovered on the beach where he once played. He wondered whether the two events might have been connected, then turned that unanswered question into a novel.
Historical Fiction
Date Published: 01-27-2026
Publisher: BearssLair Books
Dan Driscoll is consumed by gambling debt, cornered by bookies and loan sharks, forced to bet on one last scheme. When things turn violent and two people are shot, his best friend, Stan Neumann, swallows what he suspects. He can't risk divulging a closely-held family secret.
Then a body washes up on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and the lake gives Dan what the bookies never would: a way out. Authorities call it an accident and list him as the drowning victim. For Dan, it's an escape route delivered in black ink.
He becomes a ghost, an imposter, a chameleon. But lies don't stay buried.
As America is pulled into World War II, Stan enlists, choosing duty on his terms before the draft can rewrite his life. In Pearl Harbor, one chance encounter dredges up a name he thought was long buried.
War changes everything, but it doesn't erase unfinished business. And when the truth demands to be heard, how long can a stolen life stay buried before the past comes to collect?
Lucy wasn’t smiling like she used to when she folded her letter, slipped it into the envelope, sealed it with a kiss, and applied the three-cent stamp. Even the spring in her step lacked the zeal she typically exhibited during her walk to the post office. The words on the paper were true to her commitment. They spoke of the news from the home front, stories that helped Stan’s morale, and made sure her underlying message was being proud, supportive, and encouraging. The words wandering around in Lucy’s thoughts, however, were in stark contrast to this messaging.
Ever since Stan was assigned to the navy radar training school, Lucy had become more and more unsure in her belief that things would be okay. His work as an Aviation Machinists Mate stateside meant he was safe. And Minneapolis was relatively close to home. Being trained as a radarman for shipboard duties meant it was more likely he would be sent overseas into a combat zone. This caused a higher level of worry. Like everything else this war has put in short supply, her ration of optimism was slowly being depleted, and the resources for replenishing that reservoir were becoming scarce.
Her quandary was not letting Stan know about this foreboding, even though he was normally her most trusted sounding board. She tried to talk about this with her sister Millie. But Millie’s approach to these heartfelt struggles was to fix them, make them go away, or advise Lucy, “Try not to think about it.” This was not the type of support Lucy needed.
During her alone time, sitting staring out the window, the overwhelming emotion that prevailed over all others was that she really missed her husband. She now knew what being heartbroken felt like.
Cain’s Chameleon builds its intrigue around more than whether Dan can successfully disappear. His false death leaves unfinished business behind, and that deception follows the story from a Lake Michigan community into Stan’s wartime service. What begins with gambling debt, violence, and a convenient case of mistaken identity becomes increasingly complicated as private secrets collide with lives being reshaped by World War II.
The novel’s origins are just as noteworthy. While researching his father’s wartime history, Mark G. Bearss encountered two separate reports in The Oceana Herald: an attempted murder near his family’s Lake Michigan summer cottage and a drowning victim found on the beach where he once played. His decision to imagine a connection between those incidents places real pieces of local history beneath the novel’s fictional mystery.
The excerpt featuring Lucy also shows that the story is concerned with what wartime separation looked like at home. She writes the reassuring letter Stan needs while privately fearing that his radar training will eventually send him into combat. That contrast between what Lucy puts on paper and what she cannot bring herself to tell her husband offers a quieter counterpoint to Dan’s much larger deception—two characters withholding the truth for very different reasons.
This one belongs on the radar of historical-fiction readers who appreciate stories rooted in specific places and surviving documentary traces. The Lake Michigan setting, the newspaper-inspired mystery, Dan’s assumed death, and Stan’s World War II service create a strong fit for those interested in the point where local history intersects with national events. It should also appeal to readers drawn to morally complicated identity stories, wartime home-front experiences, naval history, and fiction that uses research as part of its underlying architecture.
While author Mark Bearss was setting the stage for his retirement, concerned co-workers would ask, “What are you going to do when you’re not working?” He found this question rather curious. It should have been posed, “What are you going to do first?” Mark knew that if travel was involved, he had had enough of commercial flights after 28 years of teaching for the medical device industry. Mark yearned for road trips – to visit those places he only saw from 38,000 feet. Little did he know that wish journeyed down an unexpected fork in the road. He would become an author.
While conducting genealogy research, Mark discovered archived de-classified military documents that revealed the name of a U.S. Navy destroyer his father served aboard during WWII. The reason this was a poignant discovery was because, while growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his father made no mention of this. Apart from being a U.S. Naval Reserve flight instructor, he knew his father served aboard the carrier USS ESSEX. But in what capacity? That, too, was not revealed. More discoveries materialized the further he dug. In fact, there was a lot more his father didn’t mention. This wasn’t unusual. Many WWII veterans didn’t talk about what happened back then.Because of the pandemic, the National Archives in St. Louis was closed and rendered Lt. Bearss’ military records unavailable. Thus began a project that challenged Mark’s research endeavors for over two years and about 5,000 miles on the road. The biographical sketch was sorted from creative Internet search strings, history books, navy publications, and networking with journalists, librarians, archivists, bloggers, aviation enthusiasts, museum and historical society curators, navy veterans, relatives, and more. One online resource that was instrumental in tracking his father’s journey was the weekly newspaper published in the county where his parents grew up: The Oceana Herald. It included a Local News section where family members and organizations could submit a short blurb about a relative’s visit, a social gathering, or – where a son or husband was currently stationed.
This project culminated in 2022 with Mark’s first publication titled, Undisclosed Stories Discovered: Honoring the World War II Military Journey of Lt. Joseph Ward Bearss, USNR. When asked what was one of the highlights surrounding this story, he described the road trips to seek out and discover places where his father lived, trained and was stationed during the war. What prompted him to write this as a biography took place during a meeting with the curator of the World War II Home Front Museum on St. Simons Island, Georgia. St. Simons Naval Air Station was the site for the U.S. Naval Radar Training Station, where Lt. Bearss was trained in shipboard radar operations, enemy interception, and Fighter Direction. While the museum had ample archived materials about the facility, it had very little documented about the servicemembers who trained there.
Only 250 copies were printed. Mark went back on the road in his Class-B motorhome and personally donated those copies to family members, friends and relatives, the librarians, archivists, researchers, museums, curators, historical societies, newspapers, The American Heritage Center, VFW Posts, airport FBOs, and other assorted WWII enthusiasts in 12 states who helped in his endeavors. It was a two-fold reward. Not only did his father’s story finally become told, Mark experienced the pleasure of meeting all these wonderful people who were his resources, advisors, collaborators, and consultants. Up until that point, they were only names in an email contact list.
You’re probably asking, “How is all this relevant to Mark’s new novel, Cain’s Chameleon?” It was the research from The Oceana Herald that planted the seed for this story. While perusing its issues, Mark stumbled on two articles that piqued his curiosity. The first reported an attempted murder in a home close to his family’s summer cottage on Lake Michigan. The second reported a drowning victim that washed up on the beach right where Mark and his friends used to play. Just two more stories never divulged while growing up. He wondered, Were these two events related? Then Mark decided — he would make them related.
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Cain’s Chameleon begins with a mistake that offers Dan exactly what desperation has made tempting: the chance to let the world believe he is dead. From there, the premise opens into questions of identity, secrecy, loyalty, and what happens when unfinished business survives long enough to cross into wartime. The novel’s origin in two archived newspaper reports gives that setup another compelling layer—the historical record supplied the separate events, while Bearss asked what might happen if fiction connected them. For readers drawn to historical novels anchored in place, research, and consequential choices, that is an intriguing reason to take a closer look.
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