I sailed into Savannah on what turned out to be a high tide of rare good fortune. I hadn’t planned to put in here, but then again, few of my schemes ever work out according to the original plot. It’s much like the old saying in the army: “no plan survives contact with the enemy.”

I had been slipped down the Atlantic coast with the vague idea of making my way to Belize and doing a little charter work. Cruising, fishing, diving it didn’t make much difference to me. Anything to put a few doubloons in the old treasure chest and keep body and soul joined as one. And Belize seemed a good backwater spot where a man could lay low for a while.

So begins Eric Haney’s “No Man’s Land.” The novel takes readers around the globe with adventurer for hire Kennesaw Tanner, a soldier of fortune whose next mission is to locate and rescue the kidnapped heir of a powerful Persian Gulf sheikh, whose alliance with the United States has made him a target for terrorists.

But elements within the U.S. government would rather Tanner fail and the tide is shifting against him. This mission is turning out to be more than he bargained for.

“I had been playing with this concept for a couple of years,” said Haney as he sat in his Cave Spring home on Wednesday. “It started out as a script for a film and it was originally set in Rome. But I finally decided I wanted to give this character a long life. So I called my literary agent and I began turning it into a book.”

“No Man’s Land” has a national release on Tuesday and Haney is running the gamut of press interviews for the much-anticipated release. The Cave Spring resident has enjoyed success in the literary arena before, having penned the New York Times Bestseller “Inside Delta Force.”

In a 20-year Army career, Haney served as combat infantryman, a Ranger and a Delta Force Operative. He is also the author “Beyond Shock and Awe,” and was a writer and producer of the hit CBS television show “The Unit.”

Enter Kennesaw Tanner, Haney’s “No Man’s Land” protagonist — and admitted alter ego — who comes alive on the pages of this new book.

Haney said Tanner possesses much of the experience he does.

“He’s essentially the same guy I am except that he’s young and handsome,” Haney said.

But readers will draw their own conclusions of what Tanner looks like. Haney has been purposely vague on his character’s background and even physical description, preferring for readers to create their own image of him.

“I think a reader should learn about a character through their actions,” Haney said. “We’ll see that (Tanner) enjoys being reflective and the quietness and tranquility. He has reached a point in his life where it’s revealed that he has some measure of regret. But he’s trying to do the right thing.”

Tanner’s philosophy, and perhaps Haney’s as well, is “the first duty of the strong is to protect the weak.”

Throughout the novel, Tanner traverses the globe. Many of the descriptions of exotic cities and foreign characters have an air of authenticity, having been based on Haney’s own experiences abroad.

After checking in and dropping my bag in the tastefully appointed room, I returned downstairs, where I made a very short phone call form the desk. Then I walked outside and down the narrow street to a coffee shop that sat near a small inlet off the Mediterranean.

There is nothing like Arab coffee served at an outdoor Lebanese Café. The sense of neighborliness and bonhomie is clearly evident and felt even by a foreigner. I sat at a small table and listened as two elderly Druze men discussed the latest local gossip. As I sipped my ghahwah, eavesdropping and watching the local life pass by on its daily business, I felt my mind and ear becoming accustomed once again to the rich and vibrant tones of the Arab dialect of the Levant.

Like his daring protagonist, Haney himself is a well-traveled man. He speaks and writes Spanish and is fairly fluent in German and Portuguese. He understands Italian and can get by in Arabic and French.

And while Kennesaw Tanner is a worldly and some would say sophisticated man, he is also an adventurer.

I gave the tarp a sharp pull and had just turned to the ledge when, not more than two feet in front of me, I aw a movement in the rocks. A dusty black colored wad of something made a slow rolling movement in a crack in the ledge, and as my eyes tried to make sense of the movement, that something presented itself in clear view.

The great desert cobra thrust its head and upper body into an upright stance. The puddle of his body was at waist level on the rock shelf and his head was even with my face. He spread his hood and looked me directly in the eyes. And as I stared wonderingly into those round pupils, I knew I was engaged with a sentient and evil being.

The snake swayed side to side, as though measuring the distance between us. I saw him flicker his tongue two, three, four times. And then, in what appeared to be slow motion, he rocked himself backward to launch a strike…

“No Man’s Land” begins in Savannah and ends there, with Haney’s affinity for Georgia, particularly North Georgia, evident in several elements of the book.

Georgia makes an even bigger appearance in the second part of the series which Haney said is almost complete.

As he enjoys the warm and comfort of his 141-year-old gothic revival home near Rolater Park in Cave Spring — a home he shares with his wife Dianna — Haney promised that everyone from the casual reader to his die-hard fans will find something intriguing about Kennesaw Tanner.

“No Man’s Land” will be available at all major bookstores and online booksellers on Tuesday.

Visit online at erichaney.com for additional information about the book and the author.