Escape from Milltown is the poignant story of the young life of James McIllwane. As a young man, James McIllwane becomes a highly coveted Major League baseball prospect. Living in a textile mill village in the 1960s provided few opportunities for young men to avoid a short life of intense hard labor and mind-numbing boredom in textile towns from Southeast Virginia to the Florida Panhandle. In Book One of the life of James McIllwane, he makes it all the way to the doorstep of fame and fortune in professional baseball, only to have success snatched from him by a serious shoulder injury. Having lost most of his family support and several childhood friends, McIllwane finds himself alone in a world of uncertainty, which he is poorly equipped to understand. By shear serendipity, McIllwane meets Thomas Calhoun Sanders, and their lifelong friendship and service to the United States in the Central Intelligence Agency are brought to life in the sequel to Escape from Milltown, Call Me Deaconblue.