Rainy Street Stories by John Davis: A Compelling and Must Read

Featured Article and Treasure Hunter of the Month from the October Newsletter: John Davis.

Introduction added from Newsletter: 

John Davis, who has recently retired from army intelligence, is featured in this month’s newsletter as Treasure Hunter of the Month. His treasure hunts were in way of searching through his mind filled with unique and chilling experiences in order to share incredible short stories about his time in service.  Let me take this moment now and say, Thank you, John, for your precious gift of service.

I loved his book and I’m sure you will too!  So full of Life and mystery. They are thought provoking stories that will leave you pondering, maybe, forever.)

Thank you for offering me a chance to introduce your readers to my book, Rainy Street Stories. To do so, I’ve included the Prologue of the book for their consideration.

As you can see from my prologue below, I offer mysteries and puzzles which I believe are close to the hearts of your Mysterious Writings readers. This collection of some 50 true short essays and vignettes tries to capture something of the atmosphere of moral dilemmas, secret practices, and aspects of human nature involved in the secret world, a world I once inhabited. Also, as with many mysteries, many remain to be fully understood, if ever.

If your readers find this book of interest, please encourage them to order it (either hardback or paperback) online at Amazon.com. As a special introduction for your readers, since I am also on your website, they can order it through you, and I can arrange to have a signed copy mailed to them personally. Incidentally, some of your readers in the Washington, DC, area can also find it in the International Spy Museum bookstore.

PROLOGUE

Dear Reader, Let me caution you. As you read these reflections about the secret world of espionage, counterintelligence, war, and terrorism, know beforehand that this is in great part a world of ambiguity. You must be satisfied that people and events may often remain a mystery. Not completely, however. Some of what you read here is as old and clear as ancient proverbs, even though practiced in the secret world. Nowhere is there a free pass from choices of good and evil. I hope thereby to help you appreciate somewhat the atmosphere of such a life, a life in the secret world.

My generation was greatly impacted by our parents’ Second World War. We inherited the panoply of modern horrors which evolved thereafter. Ours was the Cold War, and its attendant culture of secrecy. We were at war with the Staatssicherheit, the “Stasi”, the East German secret service, not to mention the Soviet KGB, “East Bloc” spies, and a host of others. Then came the carnivals of blood left in the Cold War’s wake. Terrorist plots and actions in a variety of forms blossomed like poison plants and weeds from revolutionaries, insurgents, and wirepullers. There were clandestine wars in conjunction with Vietnam, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and in the Middle East, which were for the most part never declared. They happened as if they were always lying dormant, simply awaiting their murderous stage call.

Even during periods of apparent peace, such wars continue. I hope to explain what must of its nature remain largely tentative and opaque. We who dealt with this world saw only dimly, as through a glass darkly. Perhaps this is the best I’ll be able to provide. Or perhaps more, that is for you to decide. We and our Allies fought for a free and open society, and like the Resistance personnel of the Second World War, hoped for a better world as a result. I believe this is what motivated many of my colleagues who were upright men and women, even when no one was watching. We fought for liberty and justice for all. In humility, I offer no ‘solutions’, only the thought that no cause is worth the loss of one’s soul.

All the events I reflect upon here had some influential bearing on my life. Some are arguably best said in essay format. I relate also observations about events, people I met and their stories, artistic impressions, or readings which impacted my thinking. Others are thematic articles about some aspect of the secret world of intelligence, illusion, war, and security. I also offer poetic interpretations which attempt to capture some of the emotional and mental effects on those engaged in, or affected by, this strange world. Often the tentative grasp of a verse suggests more truth than volumes of prose.

You’ll notice that these rainy street stories find fellow feeling with the film noir genre. Such films attempt to portray the opaque, mysterious, and inexplicable by use of the rainy street metaphor; for such has no clear delineations. Fog and mist literally embrace people, who try to see, but either due to some form of blindness cannot, or will not. This book attempts to help you see. Take your time as you read what is here. Nothing is as it seems, is it?

Darkness and an intangible sense of gloom or dread envelop the central battlefields of our world’s secret wars. Such a world exists in parallel with that of normal life. It is a chameleon world, for it attempts to appear to belong to the everyday events happening around it, but does not. The surveillant wants to appear a part of a normal scene, but is not. We are confronted with the effects of these secret, real wars on real people, on real families, not least of all my own. I hope these appreciations of this world may cause you, too, to wonder about them as well. After all, as Leon Trotsky said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

If you remember only this, it will suffice. In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. Jose Narosky, the writer who said this, grew up in a Fascist dictatorship; he never saw a shot fired. He knew, however, that those fighting, especially those fighting in secret, or victims of such battles, are engaged in something which will not leave them unwounded. I
hope this book will help explain why there are such casualties, especially in undeclared, unseen, secret wars. All the victims of these secret wars were not soldiers; indeed the majority are rightly called victims.

An ancient Chinese proverb says that the best way to find your way along an unknown road is to ask someone coming from the opposite direction. He can tell you how to prepare, what to be aware of, who you can trust, and signposts to watch for. You must then discern whether his advice is good or bad, true or false, and act accordingly. I’m returning from a road into a secret world. I will be your Virgil on this walk along rainy streets. It is up to you to discern whether what you hear is true, or good, or not.

John W. Davis
Athens, Alabama

From a review in the Manhattan, NYC, SoHo Journal:

John Davis, recently retired from Army Intelligence, provides us with the conundrum of America in the current world of terrorism and hidden wars. How do we maintain our freedoms as we change and adapt to the new realities of engagement? While he gives us some answers, he describes the choices that we must make through analogies that clearly make the decision much easier. As he tells us in his prologue, “Nowhere is there a free pass from choices of good and evil.” It is as if he is alluding to the fact that it is not only Intelligence professionals, but all of us in a free America that must, on a daily basis, make a Hobson’s choice from among more than two equally unpalatable alternatives.”–D. Clark MacPherson, SoHo Journal
From a review by Pulitzer Prize Winner Joey Kennedy, Birmingham News: “…compelling and beautifully written….that feeling of film noir permeates this collection.”