Chess

Two Pieces. One board. No rules.

Krede is a bishop, an elite assassin raised by an ancient, chess-like monastic syndicate to move with fluid, lethal silence. Veil is a Rook, a brilliant, clinical contract killer who doubles as a trained doctor, deployed by a rival faction to execute an eye-for-an-eye retaliation against Krede’s handlers.

When the grandmasters above turn the board into a trap, both pieces are captured. Using his unique physiology, Krede breaks free, forcing a cynical, detached Veil to abort his mission despite the rules of the game.

When a predatory new criminal syndicate emerges, the Grandmasters reset the board with an unprecedented mandate: the Rook and the Bishop must play under the same color.

Forced into a global partnership, Krede’s chaos turns into a calculated smokescreen, while Veil coordinates with underground networks. But the partnership fractures when Krede makes unsettling discoveries.

As their target flees across international borders, Veil must set up a high-stakes ballistic crossfire while Krede orchestrates a fiery, claustrophobic infiltration. Amidst gunfire and explosions, Veil must pull the ultimate trigger.

Texas Twisted Border

Two young couples are four great friends enjoying living life to the fullest in Austin, Texas. Their group includes a dedicated hospital nurse, a beer distributor, an ambulance driver/first responder, and a specialist at an animal rescue center who sometimes trains dogs for the police department’s K-9 units.However, one very important thing that brings them even closer together in their friendship is not enjoyable at all. Stacey, the hospital nurse, has a younger sister who has fallen prey to drugs and drug handlers crossing the Rio Grande River into Texas.The “Fearless Foursome,” as the two couples had come to be called at motorcycle races (both road and off-road racing), are determined to find out who is getting the drugs to her sister.This involvement turns daily living into a “cloak and dagger” world on both sides of the border.   The four friends live up to their name as “The Fearless Foursome.”

Valemont's Game

Haylee has been through so much in her young life. Her parents’ divorce, a drug addiction, a criminal case that led to the world’s worst group home visit, even her own sister’s suicide. She comes from a world of structure and discipline, but she herself is made of glass, breaking at every turn, every mistake, every tragedy. What’s the cure for all of it? Certainly not sending her to Valemont Prep. The ruthless school she’s been destined to attend since birth, a school she’s been avoiding since she was a little girl. With bluestone walls and the most funded programs, fancy staff and a party every week, the school holds so many secrets. Revealing those secrets isn’t what she thought of as a good time, but being caught in the crossfirejust might be the answer to her sister’s sudden death. Only there are some people there who’d love to see her burn completely and one who’d be happy to light the match himself.

Sebastian hides himself from others. His mind istoo dark for people to handle. His past, made up of lies and reasons for his shattered hope in human beings. He finds no reason to live until the day he faces Haylee. She’s someone who took away his happiness, who took away the last shred of love he held in his arms, but she doesn’t know that. And the girl he thought he would meet is no longer the one in front of him. What a sweet chance for revenge and the one thing left holding him together, or maybe his revenge is the one thing that’ll end him for sure.

After all, this game is never fair. It’s just deadly.

Firstlings of the Flock

As with the story of Cain and Abel, the two MacKenzie brothers, Duncan and Cameron, do not get along – never have. For years, there has been almost no communication between brothers until the death of their father, John Jay.

Cam feels compelled to return for the funeral and the subsequent hearing of his father’s will, though he is uncertain what drives him. Although Cam expects nothing from the estate, surprisingly, the will decrees that he and Dun should travel to the High Uinta Wilderness (a special place for his father) to settle their differences.

Needless to say, both brothers do not return from the wilderness, but unfortunately, that still does not resolve the matter. Now the will is being contested by a third party claiming to be a previously unknown daughter.

Through DNA testing and some serious sleuthing, Cam discovers nothing is as he thought, and even he, Cameron MacKenzie, is not who he thought he was.

The Sky Pilot’s Wife

The Sky Pilot’s Wife is a historical romance and ‘slice of life’ novel set in the late Victorian period (1899-1902) in a quaint village on the Yorkshire Moors of England.

An intriguing romance arises between two of the most unlikely characters and it is heightened by the ‘secret language of flowers.’ The green-eyed monster, jealousy, causes an inevitable conflict and the rising tension creates a catastrophe which triggers a totally unexpected train of events.

Later, during a storm, the vicar’s wife, Louisa flees the vicarage to seek shelter within the confines of the church. But providence intervenes and gossip in the village becomes rife, much to Louisa’s consternation.

A fire later breaks out in the belltower of the church and the local constabulary is brought in to help solve the unfolding mystery. But who is it that wants Louisa dead? What is the purpose of this heinous crime? And who should pay?

The Letter

Dr. Allana Wilson, a world-renowned nuclear physicist, enjoys a quiet and structured existence until she receives a letter from a brother who was reported lost in the mysterious sinking of a U.S. nuclear submarine years earlier. Before she can even regain her senses from the revelation that he is alive, party or parties unknown ransack her home, apparently after the letter. The only person she finds herself able to turn to is Remy Davenport, a government agent assigned to perform the final review of the key nuclear project she is spearheading.

All of this happens in a matter of days, and Allana believes she’s hit rock bottom when she shocks herself by sleeping with the visiting agent.

Then things get worse.

Thrown together, Allana and Remy find themselves caught up in an imponderable military and government conspiracy with terrifying implications and are forced to flee for their lives from hit squads that will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep that conspiracy from being discovered. Their flight leads them from Washington, D.C. through the eastern U.S. to Ontario, Nova Scotia, and eventually Newfoundland. There they face the greatest challenge of their lives, fighting to avert a nuclear disaster as part of an ad hoc team consisting of a D.C. federal agent, a squad of former Special Forces soldiers from Montana, and three Canadian civilians.

Despite their differences and the mayhem stalking them, love begins to grow.

But will it ever get a chance to blossom?

Murder at River Oaks

In Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world, oil and gas are king. To the shock of the city, Jonathan Pendergast, the CEO of one of the largest oil companies in the country, is gunned down on the front steps of his own home in the wealthy, venerable neighborhood of River Oaks.

One month later, his neighbor, Marvin Green, a nationally known professor at Rice University, was shot point-blank in the head in his office while working late on his latest anti-global warming book. The professor is an MIT-trained scientist and is a well-known advocate for representing oil companies’ views that CO₂ emissions do not cause global warming. Both were killed with 9mm handguns.

The two have worked together before. Possible motives for the two killings include ambition, jealousy, envy, inheritance, ecological passion, and even ordinary robbery. Viable suspects are plenty. Mrs. Pendergast hires Dirk Wolfson, a private investigator and an ex-prosecutor, to find the killer or killers. Dirk has his own shadowy demons to deal with. As Dirk culls and analyzes evidence during the investigation, he ponders to himself, are these killings directly related, or are they random killings by a disgruntled employee or a misguided, passionate environmentalist? Dirk is keen on using modern technology to solve the murders.

Run Horse Run

Hatchell Breeze has now retired from the police force yet and, out of boredom, has teamed up with his old partner, Phillip Young, to open the Breeze Investigations & Security office across the street from the police department, where he formerly headed the detective unit for homicide and all violent crime for the city of Greenville.

Their very first case comes as a surprise, investigating the shooting of a thoroughbred horse while the horse is running a stakes race on the local racetrack.

Is it intentional or a fluke or related to another crime where a notorious criminal was assassinated two weeks earlier? This leads Breeze and the police force on an unusual hunt to solve the mystery before another crime happens. Breeze soon learns the horse industry is truly a totally different animal as he mingles with the elite of the industry and uncovers unlawful acts and plots among the leaders and players, assisted by two cousins who are the daughters of the owners of two of the most famous Kentucky horse farms.

Breeze’s continuing investigation soon opens old wounds he thought were dead and buried and exposes friends, family, and associates to impending danger as he rushes to solve the case before more violence can occur while the spring racing meet is underway and the entire industry is brought down nationwide.

This is the third crime novel of the Hatchell Breeze stories; the fourth is due out in the fall of 2026.

The First Citadel

Does global prehistory intrigue you? Secret caves? Ancient manuscripts? Giant skulls? This story blends facts, fiction, and fantasy to portray the unusual young life of Blake Burmeister and his globe-trotting archaeologist grandfather, Doctor Henry Covington, who delves into the mysterious anomalies of his profession, which he shares with his precocious grandson, who eventually takes up that fascinating profession.

As their stories mature, Henry has a surreal experience in the Altai Mountains of southern Russia at an ancient, majestic volcanic island palace protected by a geoenergized crystal wall—home to the last surviving pair of giant Atlanteans and their unique android staff.

The two educate Henry about their cultures’ rise and fall, then implore him to send Blake and three talented companions to learn from the Atlantean experience how they can work in the modern world to prevent a repeat! Meanwhile, a recently released lethal Atlantean creation threatens chaos before they even begin.

Their lives are forever reshaped!

The Year of the Cat

Due to COVID-19, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt Webster and his partner, Alfred ‘Stinky’ Floyd, are about to lose their business, Pine Valley Outfitters.

It seems a miracle when Ruben Benjamin Kaufman, president of On Site Films, offers Teddy a job. Somehow, Kaufman has obtained a rare permit to film in the Pine Valley Wilderness. Since no combustion vehicles are allowed, Teddy’s job is to transport (by horse) film equipment, technicians, and actors onto the mountain and keep them supplied. Stinky (who loves garlic and smells of it) will be the camp host, babysitter, and trash cop.

Unfortunately, trouble, like snow in the high country, comes early. Tony Pisano, Kaufman’s scene scout, is found torn to shreds, apparently the work of Puma concolor—the great North American cougar! Death by cougar is confirmed when its DNA is found in morsels of deer meat embedded in Pisano’s body. The head-scratcher: Why would a cougar, who’d just feasted on a deer, kill again? And so soon?

Sadly, this is not the end of Teddy’s troubles. When Katrina ‘Kat’ Kasey (the female star) wanders off, she also ends up on the medical examiner’s table.

The mystery deepens when the cougar’s DNA is found to match the DNA of Teddy’s (orphaned and rescued) 10-month-old cougar cubs. Caged in Teddy’s backyard, waiting to be released into the wild, they have never been anywhere near the Pine Valley Wilderness. Clearly, something is not kosher here. How could DNA from Teddy’s ‘kittens’ end up on the bodies of two corpses? And equally puzzling, why?

Betrayal

Corporate greed, insider trading, money laundering, skull-drudgery, espionage, rampant, and illicit relationships abound in the hostile environment of retail appliances and consumer electronics. A disgruntled executive, passed over for promotion, has devised a diabolical strategy to confuse the competition. Is a double agent systematically directing much of this confusion? To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes: “Quick, Watson … the game is afoot!”

Coming Out of a Pale Road: Part Two of Pale Twisted Forest

Most of the characters from A Pale Twisted Forest are back again in different situations. Going against his better judgement, Ivan has begun an intense relationship with the judge, who was greatly attracted to Ivan’s unusual beauty. Likewise, his grandfather Peter has begun a pleasant affair with an extreme champion Irish fighter and his exotic wife. Ivan’s mother, Natleaha, continues to run her own fixer business while satisfying her desires with the Chicago police detective Sam and a female children’s author.

But as the Fisk family enjoy their daily routine and happiness, new outside forces rise up and threaten them, who have the potential to be more dangerous than their past foes. Adding to the mix of the story are other characters in the Fisk family’s lives dealing with their own complicated lives.

And unknown to the Fisk family is a mysterious and ancient group that also has Ivan in their sights. So it will take all of Ivan’s wits and cunning to once again come out on top.