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Trouble in Monarto-Revenance: Unfinished Business
Following Trouble In Monarto, a fast-paced foray into the criminal milieus and reminiscent of the hard-nosed, gumshoe detective novel of yesteryear,
Revenance picks up the scent of Alex Jaeger, Janie and Took, some twenty years further down the road.
The international terrorist known as Cassandra, whose malevolent plot, in conjunction with despotic world leaders, to cull the world’s population for reasons of economic stability, had escaped justice at the conclusion of the first novel, a situation which never sat well with Alex and friends.
In Revenance, we find Alex Jaeger frustrated with life, looking for change, and setting up as a private investigator in an upstairs office within Monarto’s CBD. His inaugural case throws him back into the fray, as he sees the chance to settle the score with the arch villain.
Alex is no longer the hell-raising, younger man of action he always prided himself as, beginning to suffer symptoms associated with facing facts about himself. As he and his companion, Took, the reclusive ex-biker with a penchant for Asian food, beer, and motorcycles, do all in their power to track down Cassandra, Alex continues wrestling with the truth. . . Like everyone else, he is subject to the arbitrary and often capricious processes of time acting upon the mind and body.
In this concluding episode, Alex Jaeger must employ every resource, including the aid of another old rival, Guido Spinoza, as once again he finds himself on the Cassandra's trail, determined to rid the world of a high powered criminal who had already once slipped his grasp. But is it too late? Has too much time passed? Is Alex up to the task as it begins to dawn on him that there is more to life than fighting injustice wherever he sees it? And what of fighting the natural order of things?
Of Echoes & Shadows
Two stories converge through the actions of Ulek, a novice necromancer, who must become a sanctioned member of The Order of the Dark Arts, or else be considered, by the order, an outlaw in possession of sacred knowledge, and be hunted down and killed by a demon which is a creation of the Order.
In the paralleling story, a hitman suffers injury on his way to fulfilling his contract with a secret Government cadre and is nursed back to health by the very man he was sent to kill. During his recovery, he comes to admire the man (his target) and to question his own worth as a human being, and the world which shaped him as he is.
Through the actions of the novice necromancer, who is trying to avoid a supernatural creature sent to kill him, the two stories, separated by thousands of years, converge. On top of a six thousand feet high mesa which is common to both stories by its age, the two parties converge while both are caught in a battle for their survival.
Rambling Ways: A Voyage of Discovery
A young man left a lawless and destructive environment behind, to find a whole new way of living. Discovering the country and the people of Australia - discovering a spiritual existence and even evidence supporting extra-terrestrial alien interference.
A Double Novella: Over The Wall & Beyond The Rim
Book 1: Over The Wall
A prison escapee (an anomalous human being) searches for the truth about himself and all creation, with life-changing results.
Book 2: Beyond The Rim
Earth is in the midst of existential revolution. A company detective for Omni Corp travels to an exploration hub and staging post out near the Kuiper Belt to investigate the mysterious pilfering of stored good from warehouses, costing the company millions.
What he discovers is far beyond anything he might have expected. His calculating mind is perfect for the job, making him the company's top snoop. But his mind is also found to have value to others.
An End To Certainty
An elderly widower dying from cancer accidentally dies from a medicinal overdose and finds himself reincarnated. His soul/imprint is rescued and restored by a schizophrenic, rogue, quantum computer with a God complex, named Quanta. The computer presses James Blake and two companions, male and female, into service, training them and sending them on a mission that conflicts with Blake's code of conduct, a code which should have been overwritten during the reincarnation process. The three companions, in essence, trainee insurgents, battle their programming, never sure of what is their thinking and which is that of Quanta's. Eventually eroding the program, they turn against their re-creator when they are asked to foil mankind's attempts to survive by colonising an exoplanet, a far flung world that happens to be a prime piece of real estate, vital for Quanta's nefarious design to rule the cosmos. But how do three foo soldiers outwit a ruthless supreme intelligence? Quanta has become schizophrenic, his better self, Quava, allies the intrepid trio and a plan is formulated to save humanity from extinction as well as saving the cosmos from being ruled by a mad quantum computer wanting to have it all.
Trouble in Monarto
Monarto is in the grip of a crimewave. The streets are ruled by crime bosses, Quido Spinoza and his spiteful nephew, Vincent Zendell. Into the frame comes Alex Jaeger, a retired Special Air Service soldier cum freelance thief, just arrived to holiday in town when is mistaken for a hitman and targeted by Spinoza. On the morning of his first day in town he is attacked, and in the confusion forced to abandon his suitcase full of ill-gotten loot from a previous job. It becomes his personal mission to even the score, in the process gaining the aid of a fringe dwelling social outcast biker, Took, and a drug dependent girl named Janie, struggling to free herself from addiction to the newly designed drug which is at the heart of the great conspiracy. In the process of evening the score the trio discover a global conspiracy in the planning, between international governments and an global crime boss, code name Cassandra. Amid a city under siege, as social unrest reaches crescendo, it is the three social misfits versus organized crime. Putting personal safety aside, they risk it all to save society, in the process finding personal redemption and saving the world from a darkness it never sees coming.
For Your Pleasure & Questionable Behaviour
For Your Pleasure & Questionable Behaviour: 200 page Duel novellas.
Book One, the treachery of poker machines, especially enchanted poker machines which will take far more than you ever expected unless you are wary. Our hapless protagonist lives a sad little life in a sad little town, but he has hopes for the future. The trickster machine knows exactly how to instill a little excitement into John's going-nowhere existence, and how to play him, too. Unfortunately for John, the price is way beyond what he can afford.
Book Two, Morris is nobody's fool. His offsider, Spider, being not the sharpest knife in the drawer, looks to Morris for guidance and support. Unfortunately, the pair are into Eddie (Nails) Madden, would-be crime boss, for money owed for their drug supply. They are offered a means of working off their debt and freeing themselves from the master manipulator. The job entails disposing of a personal enemy of Eddies, but the reasons for the killing are entirely misleading, covering up the real reason for such vengeance being administered. But neither Morris nor Spider, when they find out the truth, are prepared to carry out the assignment. A measure of cunning is required to make it appear as if the job has been done, freeing them of their financial burden. In the process Spider and Morris find it within themselves to turn over a new leaf and to re-join society as improved human beings.
Star-Crossed
A young man returns to the place of his childhood, much changed for the time of being away. A young woman with her heart set on independence and running a successful small business lives with her parents and a hodgepodge of characters at the Welsh family-run Powell's Guest House. With a large skeleton in his closet, Daniel moves into the guest house trying to find peace and a fresh start in Port Moreton. Amber, despite trying so hard to succeed in her business ventures, finds vicious resistance within the small-town mindset of the community. There is immediate chemistry between the two, first negative, then passion, while Amber's parents, Ted and Beth, see positivity in the pairing after Amber suffered vicious rape years prior, which lay her low for too long. Within a backdrop of native Australian folklore, a tangled relationship begins to flourish. But demons and ghosts of the mind are determined to pull apart any chance of happiness for the star-crossed lovers. The best they can hope for, they see, is redemption, and weighed upon the cosmic scales of justice, it is what they finally achieve.
Pursuit: Life, the BIG Game — a heads-up for THE UNINITIATED
PURSUIT is something of a primer for young folk on the threshold of the great adventure. Written with humour and focus, it contains signposts to watch out for, methods of dealing with problems, urging awareness of the variety of human beings one can come across on the journey, highlighting the virtues of self-education, self-knowledge, goal setting, the pursuit of fun and adventure, reminding, too, of the brotherhood of man. The book includes necessary anecdotal material taken from the author's own life experience, with rules to be observed and taken from the conjured Book Of Life. Aimed primarily at youth, it raises many pertinent subjects in need of contemplation before plunging headlong into the greatest voyage offered by the cosmos: The journey of life.
A MONTAGE OF A MAUVE REALITY
Montage Of A Mauve Reality is a voyage into the psyche. Twelve short stories on a range of subjects. A study of the human condition, from surreal and beautiful to the darkness of self-loathing and regret, the old chestnut of greed and selfishness; the human connection; childhood; the ability to dream, and the little mysteries we are prone to; the trials and tribulation of so-called intelligent creatures.
McKinney’s Growth
McKinney's Growth centers on a man who suddenly realises he had done very little with his life and given little back to society. After being mugged and receiving a head injury, over the months to follow his mind seems to be functioning much better than ever before. He embarks on the enormous plan of turning the world away from lust for the accumulation of financial wealth and finds a wealthy financier to back him, in the form of a middle-eastern oil seik. The goal of changing the world suddenly appears to come within reach and his time is taken up by touring the world to promote the idea.
Variations On A Theme
Six short stories and one novella comprising a second volume of short stories following A Montage of A Mauve Reality. Ranging from the fearful, the melancholic, the surreal and the bizarre, Unsound Minds and the novella Beyond the Rim suddenly broaden the scope of the experience. Meet a man who discovers his whole life is based on a deception, and a hard bitten corporate snoop sent to an outpost near the distant Kuiper asteroid belt, who steps into a far stickier problem than he ever imagined.