Book Spotlight: Jack Ferrell Series by William Nikkel
/The Jack Ferrell series begins with Glimmer Of Gold. While diving off the coast of Maui, Jack finds a 1941 West Point class ring that sends him on a quest to find the soldier who lost it—an undertaking 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 is evidence her father didn’t murder her mother. 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.
Jack and Katie’s saga continues in Night Marchers when a promise made to her dying grandfather sends them on a deadly quest to recover priceless Hawaiian artifacts lost inside a lava tube on the island of Kahoolawe and return them to the Hawaiian people before they fall into the hands of Coleman Treadway, a ruthless antiquities dealer. No easy task. Not only is Treadway willing to kill to satisfy his insatiable greed, Kahoolawe is a restricted island littered with unexploded ordnance and home to the legendary ghost marcher of the night.
In Cave Dweller, Jack finds a skull from a species of child-sized human believed to have been extinct 12,000 years. In search of answers, he leads a team of scientists into a subterranean world deep within the rugged mountains of Kauai’s 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 most famous legends: The Menehune.
The fourth novel, Murrieta Gold, takes Jack to gold rush country in the Sierra Mountains of California. His brother Deacon is missing, and the authorities won’t get involved. Now it’s up to Jack. The trail leads him to the Historical California gold-rush town of Angels Camp where a century-old tale sends him in search of gold purportedly stolen by the legendary bandit Joaquin Murrieta and hid in the nearby mountains. As he sets out to retrace the fabled bandit’s footsteps, he meets Theresa Montero, Murrieta’s great, great, great granddaughter. The two of them join forces and embark on a deadly quest for the gold. For Jack, it’s to find his brother. For Theresa, it’s to set history straight.
Coming November 2014, Blood Gold.
Jack Ferrell, his two close friends, and an international team of scientists join forces in Guyana, South America to find the source of the lethal toxins poisoning the Mazaruni River. A deadly quest that takes them deep into the Guyanese jungle, and could cost them their lives before the hunt is over.
Excerpt from Blood Gold:
Bartica, Guyana, South America
The Lower Mazaruni River
Ahalya Pillai stood on the bank of the Mazaruni River, the ten thousand or so residents of Bartica oblivious to the threat facing them. Nor were they aware of the importance of her work there.
She dipped the specimen jar into the vast expanse of water, screwed the lid on tight, and held the glass container up in front of her. The sample looked innocent enough. She feared it was far from that. Mercury and other toxins used to separate gold from the gravel beds in the mines upriver had been finding their way into the water at an alarming rate. How serious the problem was and how much of those toxins were being absorbed by the aquatic life in the rivers and the ocean was something she and the other members of her research group would find out.
Before it was too late and people died.
So far, their findings revealed dangerously high concentrations of mercury and cyanide in the water . . . and many of the people in Guyana depend on the fish and shrimp for livelihood. To date there hadn’t been any human deaths directly linked to mercury poisoning, but she was afraid it was only a matter of time.
A splash drew her attention to the water in front of her. Bringing her fingertips to her cheek, she brushed back a lock of long, shiny, black hair that had fallen across her eye and caught sight of a gray-brown dorsal fin a second before it disappeared under water. The boat sitting fifty yards offshore had been there when she climbed out of her Jeep and walked down to the river. But she hadn’t paid attention to the shirtless, tall, muscled, dark-haired man in it, until now. He held what looked like a spear of some type. Not a harpoon for killing, something else.
Seeing the shark swimming in fresh water this far inland didn’t surprise her. She recalled hearing there was an increase in bull shark attacks on swimmers. But what was the man in the boat doing?
Despite his dark tan and rugged features, he didn’t look like a local fisherman. So who was he?
And more importantly, was he there for a reason other than sport?
Purchase Links:
Glimmer Of Gold: Amazon
Night Marchers: Amazon
Cave Dweller: Amazon
Murrieta Gold: Amazon