Matt Terry is a tour guide.
After college Terry elected to join the Peace Corps. He was sent to help the farmers in Peru and his life took a turn he never expected. He met a fellow aid worker, Susan, fell in love, married her and planned a future together only to see it disappear when a bus she was riding in to help earthquake victims plunged off a cliff-side road killing her and dozens of others. Bereft and confused, he tried to put his life back together but ran into a rebel band who decided he was a spy instead. For two years he was a prisoner before he was finally released.
With America holding nothing for him at that time, he accepted a job as advance guide for Puma Travel, using his love of travel and adventure to make the tour interesting. He usually did not lead the tour itself, at least not at first, but went ahead to make sure the boats and food and lodging and other provisions needed were available and ready. Later he would become an actual guide.
Terry's love of exotic places and excitement and interesting people keeps him on the move. In the three-book series, the first adventure takes place in Central America along the Peten River that flows through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. The second is located in the jungle islands of Indonesia. The third is far from the heat of the tropics and is in Nepal traipsing about the mountain passes of the Himalayas.
Intrigue just naturally follows him, however, and he finds himself up to his neck in trouble no matter what part of the world he is in, all truly through no action of his own. Though Terry is no spy nor does he have any desire to be one, he is often mistaken for one. To the inhabitants of each of these regions, the presence of an American in areas where rebel forces fight with old regimes cannot really be for tourism and that makes Terry a target.