A Chasing After the Wind is Jim Carson's long awaited novel and the first of his powerful trilogy. No one should have to start life with a tragic loss, but Mack Shannon had no choice, it was as if he was born with a birthmark of a black cloud. Sent by his Uncle Mickey to live at an all boys Catholic orphanage, he meets his life long nemesis, Crazy Ray, a devious and unsavory character that causes him to be hunted and beaten for a crime he didn't commit.

His uncle has had enough, and in the dark morning mist, after a second clash with the police, Mack is shipped off on a towboat downriver to Natchez, Mississippi to live with a spinster aunt on her 100,000-acre farm, Shamrock Plantation. These misfortunes are like a disease with no cure, but Mack learns to use them as building blocks for the upcoming challenge of a once in a lifetime opportunity from his Aunt Irish. Will Mack rise to the challenge of becoming greater than he ever imagined, or will he fall into the Memphis underworld of drug lords and hit men?