The Fourth Bear Hug is a continuation of the stories in The Bear Hug, The Final Bear Hug, and The Third Bear Hug. The story in the latter book concludes with Deborah Czermak dying and John Czermak recovering. However, Andrei's brother, Alexei Pushkin, is determined to kill John since he is convinced that John was responsible for the deaths of his brother and two nephews. However, Alexei is unsuccessful in killing Professor Czermak. John then returns to work at Clemson University. The story in The Fourth Bear Hug begins after Czermak retires from Clemson, sells his two homes, and moves to Colorado. He then starts working as a part-time professor at the University of Colorado and shares an office with a visiting professor from Moscow. He and Professor Lara Medvedev start traveling together to meetings, and a loving relationship develops. They attend a conference in Sweden followed by going to Moscow so John can meet Lara's parents. During this time Czermak visits a good friend at the Academy of Sciences where they go to the roof of a tall academy building to take some pictures. Then Alexei shows up and tries to push Czermak off the building, but instead Alexei falls to his death. Since John now thinks that 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 Lara's parents' home. The party has a tragic ending. Globe-trotters should especially enjoy reading about some of the author's travels to various places in the world.
About the Author: Dr. James D. Navratil was educated as an analytical chemist at the University of Colorado and is now professor emeritus of environmental engineering and earth sciences at Clemson University in South Carolina. His other teaching experiences include serving as a chemical training officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, teaching general chemistry at the University of Colorado, and teaching chemical engineering and extractive metallurgy subjects at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where he also served as head of the Department of Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy. In addition, he was an affiliate professor at the Colorado School of Mines, University of Idaho, and Clemson University as well as a visiting professor at the Technical University in Prague. Dr. Navratil's industrial experience was acquired primarily at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Rocky Flats Plant (RFP), and through his assignments with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Chemical Waste Management, DOE's Energy Technology Engineering Center, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Rust Federal Services, and Hazen Research, Inc. Dr. Navratil earned numerous honors, including a Dow Chemical Scholarship, the annual award of the Colorado Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Rockwell International Engineer of the Year, two IR-100 awards, and three society fellowships. He was a member of the IAEA team awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize and, in 2006, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Commitment to the Waste-Management, Education and Research Consortium (WERC) and to WERC's International Environmental Design Contests. Dr. Navratil has four patents to his credit and has given more than 450 presentations, including lectures in more than one hundred countries. He has coedited or coauthored 19 books (most recently with Fedor Macasek, Separations Chemistry, and with Jiri Hala, Radioactivity, Ionizing Radiation, and Nuclear Energy), published more than 250 scientific publications, and served on the editorial boards of over a dozen journals. He was instrumental in the founding of the journals Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange (serving as coeditor for many years) and Preparative Chromatography (serving as editor) as well as the ACS's Subdivision of Separation Science and Technology (SST) and its award in SST and DOE's Actinide Separation Conferences and its Glenn Seaborg Award in Actinide Separations. Dr. Navratil has also organized or co-organized many conferences, symposiums, and meetings for the ACS, DOE, and IAEA. He is a diamond member of the Traveler's Century Club (www.travelerscenturyclub.org) having visited 307 countries and territories on the club list of 327. Some of these travels are described herein.