raffel's fourth novel, "a fine and dangerous season", was self-published in september 2012 and republished by thomas & mercer, an imprint of amazon publishing, in november 2013. the work of historical fiction is set during the cuban missile crisis and is centered upon nathan michaels, a salesman for hewlett-packard who knew president kennedy two decades earlier during their time at stanford. kennedy enlists michaels to use his connections to a kgb agent to communicate with soviet premier nikita khrushchev and resolve the international crisis. reviews of "drop by drop" and "a fine and dangerous season" have noted raffel's professional experience in washington, d.c. and the verisimilitude with which he portrayed the workings of the government in his novels.