But to Alan Stewart, standing on a deserted road in Iceland with a murdered man at his feet, it looks anything but simple. The desolate terrain is obstacle enough. But when Stewart realises he has been double-crossed and that the opposition is gaining ground, his simple mission seems impossible…THE FREEDOM TRAPThe Scarperers, a brilliantly organised gang which gets long-term inmates out of prison, spring a notorious Russian double agent. The trail leads Owen Stannard to Malta, and to the suave killer masterminding the gang. Face to face at last with his opponents, Stannard must try to outwit both men - who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by his death…Includes a unique bonus - A Matter of Months, a previously unpublished short story about a murder in a casino.

    Tepui is an "intelligent, cutting edge" tale of adventure, intrigue, and forbidden love.In 1559, forty-nine Spaniards exploring a tributary of the Orinoco River reached a sheer-sided, cloud-capped mountain called Tepui Zupay. When they tried to climb it, all but six were slaughtered by Amazons. Or so claimed Friar Sylvestre, the expedition's chronicler. But Sylvestre made many bizarre claims: rivers of blood, plants that lead to gold ...Jerry Pace, a burn-scarred botanist struggling for tenure at UCLA, thinks the friar was delusional. Jerry's best friend, the historian who just acquired Sylvestre's journal, disagrees. He plans to retrace the expedition's footsteps, and wants Jerry to come with him. Jerry refuses, until he spots a stain between the journal's pages--a stain that could only have been left by a plant that died out with the dinosaurs. Now he has to find that plant.But the Venezuelan wilderness does not forgive intruders. Battered and broken, they reach a remote Catholic orphanage where the old prioress warns of death awaiting any who would venture farther. But an exotic Indian girl leads them on, through piranha-infested rivers and jungles teaming with poisonous plants, to Tepui Zupay--the forbidden mountain no outsider has set eyes on since the Spaniards met their doom.This is a story about life's surprises--the challenges, risks--and how they transform us. It is also a tale of Beauty and the Beast.

    A century after a series of apocalyptic events, humanity is struggling to survive. In the frigid north of Scandinavia, people have returned to farming, fishing, and fighting amongst themselves, living as their ancient Viking ancestors once did. But their days in the world are numbered.The last tattered remnants of humankind have become barren. No new live births have occurred in over a decade. When the remaining population dies, the human race will end.When a call goes out to the greatest fighters in the North, men capable of surviving a long journey and crushing any obstacle in their path, a young female berserker named Val takes up the challenge. With her eyes hidden behind red-lens goggles, she violently proves her worth, seizes control of a small band of fellow berserkers, and heads south to claim her prize: the first glimmer of hope for a tomorrow.Traveling deep into the wastes of Europe, surrounded by dangerous landscapes and the mutated creatures that populate them, they find themselves pursued by enemies determined to stop them at all costs. Attacked from without and betrayed from within, Val fights for the future, and if she fails, humanity fails along with her.

    And when a professor of archaeology finds clues to the location of a Pharaoh's lost tomb in ancient hieroglyphs, he hatches a plan to find the burial site - and plunder it. But can a five-man team of smugglers and thieves uncover what the centuries have hidden? And even if they find it, can they escape with it...and with their lives?

    Unfortunately, he feels no more at home in the Western world and so struggles to know his identity. Benjamin seeks to hide from both worlds in his workshop where he ekes out a living as a wood-turner. However, an attempt on his life propels him into a mysterious affair surrounding the fabled “mahogany ship” sighted by early white settlers near Warrnambool in Australia. Felicity, a historian, is seeking to rebuild her life in the nearby town of Port Fairy after a messy divorce. The discovery of the “Atlantis stone” whilst scuba diving results in her joining Benjamin in an adventure that takes them overseas to the ancient city of Cagliari in Sardinia. An anthropologist dying of cancer and an ex-SAS soldier with post-traumatic stress, join Benjamin and Felicity in an adventure that centres on a medieval treaty, a hunger for gold… and, of course, the Atlantis stone.

    One is shunned and resigns in disgrace, and the other is all but forgotten. Years later, an original copy of the plans long thought to have been destroyed is found, with hastily marked notations by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.During the second World War, American military scientists discover some fascinating properties of the hydrogen atom and its link to an ancient mystical number. The exact findings are never published, but a national laboratory is built in 1943 to further their research in covert silence. America is told it is a defense project, code-named The Manhattan Project. An egomaniacal entrepreneur and his company, Vilocorp, will stop at nothing to build the perfect human specimen. His firm's research has been getting closer every day, but they seem to have uncovered a horrific, ancient secret that has been locked away for thousands of years.Now, it's up to two men to understand the mystery surrounding the events and ancient symbolism before Vilocorp unleashes a hellish fury upon the earth; one that hasn't been seen for ages.

    But failing could mean her death…Archaeologist Matthew Connor and his friends Cal and Robyn are finally home after a dangerous retrieval expedition in India. While they succeeded in obtaining the priceless Pandu artifact they sought, it almost cost them their lives. Still, Matthew is ready for the next adventure. Yet when new intel surfaces indicating the possible location of the legendary City of Gold, Matthew is hesitant to embark on the quest. Not only is the evidence questionable but it means looking for the lost city of Paititi far away from where other explorers have concentrated their efforts. As appealing as making the discovery would be, it’s just too risky. But when Cal’s girlfriend, Sophie, is abducted by Matthew’s old nemesis who is dead-set on acquiring the Pandu statue, Matthew may be forced into action. Saving Sophie’s life means either breaking into the Royal Ontario Museum to steal the relic or offering up something no one in his or her right mind would refuse—the City of Gold.Now Matthew and his two closest friends have to find a city and a treasure that have been lost for centuries. And they only have seven days to do it. As they race against the clock, they quickly discover that the streets they seek aren’t actually paved with gold, but with blood.

    Four mini-subs are sunk or captured. The fate of the fifth sub, I-16, is unknown.Late at night, nearly three quarters of a century later: Marine biologist Jack Ferrell sails into a mysterious fog off of Kauai’s Na Pali coast.Dense fog banks don’t form in Hawaii . . . or so he thought. They certainly don’t glow in the dark.Concealed within the mist is the sloop Julie Ann floundering in a rogue remnant of drift net. A young woman’s scream pierces the damp air, and he rushes to her rescue.The next morning, Jack dives to check the damage done to the reef by the net and discovers a sunken WWII Japanese mini-sub and the answer to a Pearl Harbor enigma: the fate of I-16. But in a depression in the coral, lies a greater mystery: a human skull the size of a grapefruit.Through a colleague, he learns the skull is from an extinct species of child-sized human being that lived 12,000 years ago on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. But this skull is no 12,000-year-old fossil.In search of answers, Jack, the woman from the Julie Ann, two close friends, and a select team of scientists plunge into a subterranean world deep within the rugged mountains of the mystical Na Pali coast. And what should have been a routine scientific excursion becomes a deadly encounter with the unknown and a race against time when the expedition battles the elements, personal fears, and even one of their own to unearth the key to the origin of the skull and the surprising truth behind one of Hawaii’s famous legends: The Menehune. This is a new release of a previously published edition.

    What he finds is beyond imagining. It unleashes a mystery older than recorded time, rewrites human history, and promises to change the planet’s future. It must be suppressed.The most powerful forces in the world align against him, and a deadly competition for the artifact ensues. Capturing Gaines is not enough--everyone who has seen the artifact must be killed. His only hope is to stay alive long enough to decode the Cosega Sequence. Dig far enough into the past . . . you may just discover the future.

    He starts talking to Julian’s friends and family, including his friend Kolpos and his gorgeous Greek assistant, Elena.It turns out Julian was referring to the ancient tomb of Akhnaton, almost a myth to the world.But Julian had found some long lost artefacts and taken it to expert Robert Rabjohn who confirms that they are the real thing.When Ross finds strange connections between the deaths of Julian, Tutankhamen, Howard Carter and Orde Wingate, all years apart, he becomes concerned for his own safety.Julian’s body goes missing and then a strange message is found which says ‘Let the Eye of Ra descend’, referring to the ancient God Ra who sent his Eye to slay all the human beings…Every contact and every informant he speaks to disappears.How long will it be before the culprits catch up with him too?Threatened, almost friendless, Ross turns for help to his mother’s people, the Bedouin Hawazim tribe.It is only with their help, that he can solve the mystery of The Eye of Ra…

    Fear has gripped Europe.Tom Wagner, an officer in the anti-terror squad "Cobra", is trapped in an endless series of routine jobs and drills–until he finds himself in the middle of an international conspiracy. Suddenly he is in a race against time, trying to prevent a disaster that could tear Europe down to its foundations. And there’s no one he can trust…

    Mystified experts, confounded by the impossible timeline they receive from traditional dating methods, call upon a stubborn twenty-something with a unique talent. Matthew Turner's gift is also his curse: whenever he touches an object, his consciousness is flooded with the thoughts and feelings of those who touched it before him, be it last week or centuries ago. It's a talent that many covet, some fear, and almost no one understands. Despite being exploited as a child and tormented by the unpleasant experiences imprinted on him from the various items he's "read," Matt agrees to travel from New York to the forests of Kenya. There, threatened by unknown enemies, and helped by a beautiful but prickly ally who begins to understand his strange ability, his mind journeys back in geological time to make a discovery so shocking that it forces us to rewrite all human history.

    Believed irretrievably lost to all but legend, few dared dream the possibility that it might still exist . . .Until now! Guided by the discovery of an ancient artefact, a determined professor of archaeology and a beautiful New England heiress join forces in the quest of a lifetime. Overcoming treachery and deadly obstacles, they follow an ever-murderous trail that eventually leads them to a barren, desert valley containing a stunning secret -- one the modern world may not yet be prepared to accept.

     Darwin Lacroix wants to rewrite the story of the past. The archaeologist knows that a $10 million discovery of diamonds in Iceland is just a fraction of Emperor Nero’s fortune. He’s read the ancient scrolls buried beneath Mt. Vesuvius, and he’s about to prove that Nero lined the lava tubes with impossible amounts of gold. But when a powerful cartel seizes control of the hunt, Darwin’s quest becomes a race against time to reveal the mother lode first. With a volcanologist and an unsavory diamond expert on board, the academic’s search for riches meets lethal obstacles at every turn. Deep underground, the choices Darwin makes could determine who in his party makes it out alive. Roman Ice is a thrilling suspense novel in the tradition of Sahara, The Lost World, and Treasure Island. If you like alternate history, archaeological adventures, and complex characters, then you’ll love Dave Bartell’s action-packed tale. Buy Roman Ice today to unearth the impossible.

    Chauncy Rollock is an amiable archaeologist with just the right knack for solving logic problems. And the Mexican Military captain Gustavo De Leon is tired of fighting corruption at all levels of government. All three men and their families become entangled in the secret of the Mayan Riddle found on the steps of a newly discovered pyramid. Those who would use the treasure for personal gain are never far from their goal and must be stopped at all costs.The Yucatan will never be the same.Treasure of the Mayan King is a clean action-adventure novel that is safe and enjoyable for the whole family to read. “If you like Indiana Jones, you’ll love this book!”From the back cover:A violent tropical storm has uncovered a previously unknown Mayan pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula. On the steps of this temple lies a riddle that leads to the hidden treasure of a great Mayan king. One man, the French linguist Dr. Sova, believes he knows the secrets of the riddle. But his efforts to find it are cut short and the information falls into the hands of unscrupulous people. The race is on to see who will be the first to find the treasure of the Mayan king!