Cases include solving the disappearance of a multimorph (human/animal hybrid); the theft of a chemical formula for a badly needed pain relieving medicine; and the kidnapping of underage girls for recruitment into a household of odalisques (multiple brides). The technology of Atlantis and its contact with other continents is covered, as well as its ethics and mores.

    While combining modern day narrative and medieval times, there is magic, witchcraft, talking animals and English history to take a reader on a thrilling adventure that they will never forget.

    In the far west, Princess Isemay yearns for much more than frilly dresses and etiquette classes. While her twin sister, Alena, prepares for life as a monarch in a neighboring kingdom, Isemay roams the woods with her loyal cheetah, hunting dagger strapped to her belt. It's only when two surprising visitors arrive at the castle that Isemay must come to terms with her royal future - and a secret magical heritage. Now engaged to the king of the east, Isemay prepares for a position she never wanted.After saying good-bye to all that she loves, Princess Alena travels north in trepidation - fully prepared to marry a spoiled prince she does not desire and usurp the throne from his insane father who does not deserve it. But when tragedy strikes at her wedding ceremony and she is wrongfully imprisoned, she can only hope that her hurried plea for help will reach her father in time.Frantic to save her sister - and against the wishes of her betrothed - Isemay joins the army sent to free Alena. A mysterious encounter with a dragon in disguise leaves her with a warning that her life is in danger - but can it save her from the battle to come?

     Slingshot is a mystery – about a missing aviatrix, a conspiracy, a true-believer. Slingshot is an adventure – about following a dream, the ocean-deep, outer space. Slingshot is about constructing the first space launch-loop stretching 2,000 km between Baker and Jarvis Islands in the Equatorial Pacific. It’s about high finance, intrigue, unlimited ambition, heroism, fanaticism, betrayal…and about opening space to the common person. With a cast of 69, Slingshot takes you from Seattle’s world financial district, to the ocean bottom at 5,000 feet off Baker Island, to the edge of space 80 km above. You play with dolphins and battle sharks. You fly and sail and dive, you work and play and love across the vast panorama of an Equatorial Pacific being put to leash to serve humanity’s surge into outer space. While its accurate science and precise engineering will appeal to hard science fiction buffs, Slingshot’s major focus is the grand journey, the opening of outer space to the common person by men and women who loom larger than life as they work, play, and love.

    A new habitable planet is discovered within reach, but the first two missions have failed to return. This is the story of the third mission to Eden. What really awaits the crew of four as they make the long journey to this supposed uninhabited virgin planet, and what is the link to the secret 900 year old sect known as Alicians back on Earth? While Blake leads the Eden mission, a young researcher named Micah discovers a terrible truth that threatens the very existence of humanity. Editorial Reviews: A science fiction thriller with terrific images and revelations. SF Author Gary Gibson The reader is pulled into an all too real future, with memorable characters, leaving the reader craving more. Lydia Manx, Piker Press Amazon Reviews: ★★★★★ Superb, well-crafted, quality Scifi. I immediately bought book two in the series! ★★★★★ This is Orson Scott Card quality scifi at half the price! ★★★★★ Best science fiction of the year ★★★★★ Masterful science fiction, refreshingly original ★★★★★ I lost sleep over this book! ★★★★★ A breath-taking and truly epic series ★★★★★ A fabulous four-book set, full of imaginative new ideas ★★★★★ Six stars…brilliant…this series is addictive If you loved Dune, Foundation or Ender's Game, you'll love the first novel in this epic, galaxy-spanning series.

    Dan is receiving a medical discharge from the navy. With nowhere else to go, he heads to the home of his good friends Nathan and Heather. Trevor is a true submariner. But due to an incident involving Nathan, here he stands, stunned, watching all the girlfriends and wives wiping away their tears as the sleek silhouette of his ship glides stealthily down the river. A rich, multilayered coming-of-age story, Once in a Blue Year follows the two young men through their struggles to discover who they are, each navigating their romantic relationships and coming to terms with the dramatic event at sea that forever altered their lives. "In this lyrical debut novel, the lives of two U.S. Navy men take dramatic turns after they’re cut from a submarine mission during the Gulf War… Debut author Durkota writes a remarkable narrative centered on the afflicted mindsets of his Navy men… And while Durkota’s work often feels like a thriller, it’s more of a psychological study in which the characters, like flashes of lightning, are wonderfully alive for a very short time." — Kirkus Reviews"Durkota's plot is inspired, and his writing is accomplished and vivid... Once in a Blue Year is most highly recommended." - Readers' Favorite"The story is well-written with a lyrical style that borders on poetry at times... Really anyone who appreciates excellent writing will enjoy this one." - Online Book Club

    until their teenage daughter is senselessly killed.Just as they’re managing to put that tragic loss behind them, a complete stranger approaches Roy in a bar with a drunken proposal—he invokes their daughter’s memory to ask Roy to kill a man.All is not as it seems, however, and Roy and Susie soon find themselves navigating an intricate web of deception, betrayal, and revenge.Can Roy and Susie outwit their hidden enemies? And what secrets lie buried in their past that could destroy them?Eye for Eye is the pulse-pounding Book One of the Talion crime thriller series which begins with the Eye for Eye Trilogy.Eye for EyeTooth for ToothLife for LifeIf you like smart, fast-paced thrillers with unexpected twists, then you’ll love J.K. Franko’s ride on the dark side.

    fantasy graphic fiction novel

    A brilliant but troubled Bangladeshi physics student searches for balance, acceptance, and his own extraordinary destiny after his father disappears. When a Halloween blizzard immobilizes Minneapolis, a young woman is forced to confront the snow-bound nature of her own relationships and emotions. During an excursion to an idyllic swimming hole hidden in the Black Hills, two old friends unexpectedly compete for the affections of an irresistible, though married, Lakota woman. Like a mythical expedition to reach the horizon or the quest to distill truth from the beauty around us, the revelation confirmed by these imaginative stories - elegant, sometimes jarring, always wonderfully absurd - is that the very act of reaching is itself a form of touch.“The quiet plains of the North Country serve as a perfect backdrop for Parsons’ moving debut, a collection of short stories whose characters often live deeply solitary, if not always lonely, lives.”-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Eloquently written and replete with a continual stream of un-hackneyed twists and turns, Parsons’ collection is superbly crafted. Engaging, riveting, and at times, mind-boggling, The Sense of Touch is earmarked to become a literary classic.”-- San Francisco Book Review (five-star review)"Parsons has made himself a man to watch in the literary world. Each of these stories is as thrilling as the next." -- Portland Book Review (five-star review)"Each story is honed with purpose and infused with subtle energies. He creates delicate lines between the frigid cosmos and the warmth that can be generated among people. Parsons' writing has a strong pulse. This debut assortment heralds his promising career." -- The US Review of Books (Top-Rated Recommended Review)

    Others are only too real in this modern-day thriller set amid the chaos of a global epidemic and a cultural uprising that set the world ablaze. She's Lucky one day-Jackie the next. Actress or con artist? Avenging angel or gold-digger? Hunter or prey? Straight or lesbian? Black Lives Matter activist? Only she knows the truth. Or does she? Controversial? No doubt. And all the while-the pandemic kills.

    When unleashed, it leaves total destruction in its wake, and cannot be subdued by normal human methods, but only by the power of God. The Cold War saw “Leviathan” snarling at his gate, salivating to be let loose, when humanity was treading ever closer to nuclear holocaust. During this period, American servicemen went into the breech to stand against whatever form “Leviathan” took, and like the American warriors of past years they held strong to their faith in God to see them through. Such a warrior is Daniel O’Kean, a World War II UDT/OSS veteran and commissioned naval officer, turned covert deep-penetration maritime CIA specialist, who has only his faith to see him through his own encounters with “Leviathan.” His first test is a pre-invasion, reconnaissance mission behind the lines of Inchon Korea, where the threat of capture by North Korean invaders is around every corner. Later he leads an assignment into Latvia with near disastrous consequences. Then called upon again, into the steaming jungles near Haiphong Vietnam, while attempting to retrieve evidence of active Soviet intervention in the war, he uncovers an unusual and vital turn of events that leads to a twisted plot in the streets of London England. With each step he takes he sees God’s hand guiding him closer to a fate he does not fully understand, but follows faithfully. While O’Kean is battling an evil he cannot see, the captain of the nuclear submarine USS Seadragon, LCDR Renzo MacKenna has his own faith challenged in another form of “Leviathan” as he and CDR David Heidleman of the USS Permit coordinate to foil a Soviet plot to end America’s involvement in Vietnam. One wrong move by them and “Leviathan’s” bite could go nuclear.

    Michael’s Catholic school outside Boston in the 60s and 70s, takes refuge in her wacky misunderstandings of Bible Stories and Catholic beliefs to avoid the problems of her Irish/Italian family life. Her musings on sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, and God the Father’s romantic life will delight readers. Bridget creates glorious supernatural worlds—with exorcisms, bird relics, Virgin Martyrs, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the ‘holy’ in holy water—to cope with a family where leather handbags and even garlic can cause explosions. An avid Bible reader who innocently believes everything the nuns tell her, Bridget’s saints, martyrs, and boney Christs become alive and audible within her. While the nuns chide her sinful ‘mathematical pride’ and slow eating habits, God answers her prayers instantly by day, but the devil visits nightly in the dark. Scenes run the gamut from laugh-out-loud Catholic brainwashing of children, to heart-wrenching abuse, to riveting teenage excursions toward sex. Young Bridget tries to make sense of a world of raging men and domestically subjugated women and carve a future for herself, wrestling with how God and men treat women. Her Italian female relatives—glamorous Santa Anna, black-and-blue Aunt Maria, sophisticated Eleanor with a New York ‘Fellini pageboy’—offer sensual alternatives to the repression of her immediate family. She prays fervently that “despite God’s bizarre treatment of married women... some [girls] might still discover ways to have a great time without being a nun.” Dodging Satan is the flip-side of l'Histoire d'une Âme by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux authored by a twentieth century American girl chomping on a blue-gum cigar while she talks to a confidant about God and sex.

    Most teenagers feel unnoticed and unseen, but for Zylia, it's something much worse. She's disappearing from this world and doesn't know how to stop it. At times, she's not sure she wants to. Until she stumbles across a family mystery surrounding the disappearance of her great-aunt Angelica years earlier. During her quest to unravel the mystery, Zylia discovers she's able to cross the boundary and enter the "in between" world. Now, it's up to Zylia to save herself before she's trapped "in between" forever.

    Until recently I was just a normal boy. Well, besides the fact that I grew up wearing a copper bracelet and a malachite collar. When I moved to Johannesburg though, everything changed. I found out that I had a dark side and that I had enemies. Enemies that wanted to destroy me and others like me. I need to find a way to stop them. I need to get control of my dark side. I need help...In a universe filled with war and mystical creatures, Raymond embarks on a journey to discover his true identity and to tame his dark side. During his journey he meets a mermaid, gets tangled up in a love triangle, is taken prisoner, finds his ancestors, and is dragged into the worst war the universe has ever seen. The war of Gog and Magog. Will Raymond discover his destiny? Will he be able to stop the war of Gog and Magog?

    Barely escaping with his life, Walter finds himself in a city where kindly street pigeons teach him about language, philosophy, and politics.A venture south to find a human family for the winter sees him face more desperate peril as a flock of snow geese help him finish the journey. Finding solace in a dorm room with two young college students, Walter heads home with one of them to a ranch in Texas where he is adopted by the close-knit family and their quirky pets.Walter forms a quick bond with the scientist grandfather who spends every day with Walter, working on a project in a mysterious tiny shack behind the house. This secret work soon becomes the center of Walter's life-and his fate-when he is thrust into an epic struggle for survival against cosmic forces that threaten to destroy the world.For fans of WATERSHIP DOWN and THE SECRET OF NIMH, A PIGEON"S TALE is a mind-bending sci-fi adventure tale about friendship, loyalty, and destiny.