Leads to Sex, Murder and Revenge
Jack Ferrell is engaged to a rich drop-dead gorgeous blonde Ellery Seaport and living rent-free in the guest cottage at her parent’s house on Maui. Most men would consider him one of the luckiest guys alive.
But is he?
Free diving on a reef off the south coast of Maui, Jack spies something small and round—like a golden eye gleaming at him from the coral—and makes a grab for it. Back aboard his Zodiac, he discovers he’s found a 1941 West Point class ring with the initials C. W. M. inscribed on inside of the band.
While struggling with his failing relationship and his new job working for his fiancée’s father, an unscrupulous developer, Jack sets out to find the soldier who lost the ring—a quest that leads him to Charles William McIntyre. But it’s not until he gets a phone call from McIntyre’s twenty-seven-year-old granddaughter Katie that he learns the ring’s secret.
“This proves my dad was telling the truth,” she says. “He didn’t kill my mother.”
The ring is evidence needed to support her father’s alibi, and Jack’s statement is crucial. To help secure her father’s release from prison, he joins Katie in Henderson, Nevada where she lives. But it’s not that easy. Someone is willing to kill to keep her father behind bars. As Jack and Katie race to stay a step ahead of the killer, they put their lives on the line to discover the identity of the man responsible for her mother’s murder and the truth behind her death.
“Great story, great adventure, great new writer!”
—James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of “Blood Line”
NIGHT MARCHERS
A JACK FERRELL ADVENTURE
A Dying Old Man’s Request Leads to Treachery, Death, and Lost Treasure
Kealakekua Bay, the Big Island of Hawaii, February 1779
Enraged warriors attack. Ten minutes later, Captain Cook lay dead on the beach, his body hacked to pieces. His attempt to ransom King Kalaniopuu for the return of a boat stolen by the natives for its iron has cost the renowned explorer his life. One week later, Cook’s remains are buried at sea. His spinal column, ribs, sword, and uniform were never recovered.
South of Necker Island, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Present day
A tiger shark attacks. Marine biologist Jack Ferrell plunges his dive knife into a coal-black eye. That afternoon, a floatplane lands next to the NOAA research vessel Albatross. Jack’s friend Robert Foster has come at the desperate request of Jack’s former girlfriend, Katie McIntyre. Her grandfather is dying, and it’s imperative he talks to Jack.
Katie’s grandfather Charles tells Jack an incredible tale about Hawaiian antiquities—including the bones of King Kalaniopuu and the final remains of Captain Cook—stolen by a soldier during WW II and lost inside a lava tube on the island of Kahoolawe. A story Charles McIntyre dismissed until Coleman Treadway—a ruthless antiquities dealer claiming to be the soldier’s grandson—showed up asking questions.
Now Katie’s grandfather wants Jack to find the relics and return them to the Hawaiian people before Treadway can get his hands on them.
Jack’s promise to fulfill the old man’s dying request propels him, Katie, and Robert into a deadly race for the treasure, but it’s no easy task. Not only is Treadway willing to kill to satisfy his insatiable greed, but Kahoolawe is a restricted island littered with unexploded ordnance and home to Jack’s most dreaded foe of all, the legendary ghost marcher of the night.
“I must say that William Nikkel knows how to draw you into his story and hold you there…”
—Gary Braver, bestselling author of “Tunnel Vision”
CAVE DWELLER
A JACK FERRELL ADVENTURE
Two civilizations collide in a subterranean world
December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor: Five Japanese two-man mini-subs speed toward the mouth of the harbor. 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.
“William Nikkel’s “Cave Dweller” has everything I love: ripping adventure, buried mysteries, and intrigue that spans centuries. Written in a fantastic cinematic style, I read this book in one sitting. Great story, great adventure, great new writer!”
—James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of “Blood Line”
MURRIETA GOLD
A JACK FERRELL ADVENTURE
A Century-old Tail Leads to a Fortune in Bandit Gold
Jack Ferrell clutches a cryptic e-mail his brother Deacon sent days earlier when he wrote of treasure hunting and buried gold. Now Deacon’s missing. And the authorities won’t get involved. For Jack, a single objective remains.
Find his brother.
Deacon’s trail leads Jack to the Historical California gold-rush town of Angels Camp. There he talks to Al Brink, a local drunk Deacon mentioned in his notes. Al tells Jack a story he told Deacon—a wild-west tale about a stagecoach robbery committed on the road outside of town in 1862 in which the legendary bandit Joaquin Murrieta and his gang of killers made off with three hundred pounds of gold bars destined for the San Francisco mint. Gold that Murrieta allegedly hid in the nearby mountains during his getaway.
An interesting wild-west yarn and one Jack would’ve believed if not for the historical fact Joaquin Murrieta was killed in 1853 by Captain Love of the California Rangers, his head placed in a jar of brandy and put on display in San Francisco. But Al swears history got it wrong—Murrieta was alive to commit the robbery in 1862, and that Deacon believed it as well.
Find the gold, find Deacon.
Jack sets out to retrace the fabled bandit’s footsteps. Then he meets Theresa Montero, Murrieta’s great, great, great granddaughter. The two of them join forces, and with the aid of valuable clues provided by Ms. Montero’s family bible, they embark on a quest for the gold.
For Jack, it’s to find his brother. For Theresa, it’s to set history straight.
“Nikkel’s solid character development and strong storyline keep the book moving at a fast clip. His law enforcement background in patrol, SWAT and homicide add grit to his tales. Throw in some local history, a love interest and lots of action, and you have a winner in “Murrieta Gold.””
—Michael Russo, co-owner of Russo’s Books at The Marketplace
BLOOD GOLD
A JACK FERRELL ADVENTURE
Death, Murder, and Greed in the Guyanese Jungle
Marine biologist Jack Ferrell is in Guyana, South America conducting research into an increase in shark attacks when he witnesses a man violently assault a beautiful woman. He rushes to her rescue and afterwards discovers the woman is a part of an international resea
rch team analyzing water samples at the request of the government.
The only explanation for the woman’s attempted murder is that the person behind the attack doesn’t want the research team to expose the source of the deadly toxins killing the Mazaruni River.
Jack is quick to discover the shark attacks and the water pollution are connected. And when his two close friends join him expecting a leisure holiday, the three of them are immediately drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game as they race against time to stop the man behind the poisonous tide. A pursuit that takes them deep into the Guyanese jungle where a modern-day gold rush is destroying the rainforest and men kill for the riches buried there.
“Brings plenty of wild action to an exotic setting.”
—Thomas Perry, New York Times bestselling author of “A String of Beads”
TIBETAN GOLD
A JACK FERRELL NOVELLA
Deception and Resolve Lead to the Recovery of a Golden Idol
Marine biologist Jack Ferrell is on the beach on Maui loading supplies in his Zodiac in preparation to drive his friend’s new boat to Oahu. He hears a woman scream and sees two rough-looking men chasing her on the beach.
It only takes him a second to decide these are not good men.
He waves her into his waiting Zodiac and takes her to his friend’s boat. Safely on board, she tells him the two men chasing her had stolen a golden idol from a collection of antiquities that belonged to her father who died suspiciously. And that she traced the thieves to Maui and stole it back from them. The problem is, she tossed it into the sea to prevent them from reclaiming it.
There’s a chance the precious statue can be recovered and he agrees to go after the idol. A relatively routine task until he finds himself fighting for his life when the thieves come after the girl. And he’s the only person standing between her and certain death.
“William Nikkel definitely knows how to kick butt and take names. He’s a gifted storyteller.”
—Steve Berry, New York Times Bestselling Author of “The 14th Colony”
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