Dave Owens, a successful young businessman, is trying to repair a marriage he has seriously damaged with alcohol and addiction to work. Then a new and frightening challenge confronts him. His older brother Kyle is viciously beaten and lies in the hospital. In near panic, Dave rushes back to Springlake, his boyhood hometown, in Virginia.

A chilling puzzle begins to take shape. It involves a nearly forgotten incident during the Owens brothers' youth and Dave's personal nemesis, "Tank Hill." The brothers and their friends are being stalked by a sadistic killer who fears what they may remember. He sets out to eliminate them one by one in horrific ways."Along the way an enticing young woman threatens to detour Dave's efforts to set his personal life straight. He struggles with his feelings while the maniac killer breathes down his neck. The local sheriff makes life difficult for Owens until he uncovers the lawman's real motivation for his animosity.

The spirit of a young Confederate soldier comes to Dave's aid and Owens experiences a jarring epiphany on a battlefield of some 140 years ago.

The heart-stopping outcome is one that neither Dave nor his brother could have anticipated.

"Carl and I must make twenty trips back and forth carrying wounded to those who can offer comfort and medical aid. Each time I look at our litter-now covered with blood and gore-and wonder whether we've done our bit in time. Others scurry about clearing the aftermath of the battle. Burial details are already working to inter the dead before daylight and scavengers descend on this killing ground. The smell is worse than any hog butchering I was ever a party to. Already I can hear the buzz of flies and see the beady little eyes of small animals drawn to the smell of fresh blood. We stand over one soldier writhing in this "sacred ground" as the sergeant called it and lift him ever so gently onto the litter. These men's blood may make the ground sacred, but by now I can see this place for what it actually is-a sea of Virginia mud trying to clutch and claim the dying. This wounded boy wears the blue of the Feds. He's calling out a name and reaching toward me, grasping at me with his trembling fingers as I lean closer. A strange feeling of comradeship comes to me when I realize how like my own fellow soldiers this Yankee fighter looks-just another man doing his duty, whatever his beliefs may be."

"The thug was dragging Karen away when Pete finally mustered the strength to pull himself to a sitting position. He tried to move toward the door, but they had already exited. Pete watched them pass the window and the biggest, ugliest man he had ever laid eyes on literally threw Karen into the elevator. Jumbo tucked a gun into his shoulder holster. Pete flashed back to Billy's description of Percy the manimal. He'd heard Karen call his name. At least there apparently weren't two gruesome men in the world that were as ugly as this one. Pete would give a million bucks right now for a shotgun to blow Percy's ass all over the hotel.

"Helpless against the armed giant in his present condition, Pete could only slump to the floor as they drove away. What seemed like hours later he slowly clawed his way up the side of the bed. He searched for the telephone to alert Jim Hardin. If she really intended to take the hoodlum to the CD's, Jim was in immediate danger. Pen's phone rang emptily until the answering machine picked up. Pete did all he could at the moment."

I looked up at the Panther hovering over me, blond hair flying, face grimacing with pain. Then I saw it those long, sharp teeth looked bigger than ever, and they were aimed at my face. I kicked at the Penther's legs and they buckled, but the hideous animal skull swung high above my head.

"Kiss the Panther, O'Neill " my enemy shouted.

Ron O'Neill just wants to write fiction and enjoy the good life in Florida. A sadistic serial killer shatters his peaceful existence by leaving quotes from Ron's books at scenes of horrific murders.

O'Neill and his policeman friend Trent Gable set out to snare the killer, whose twisted mind takes on the identity of the Florida Panther. Their search takes them into homeless camps, deep into the Everglades, and into the hab itat of the wild panthers. Ron's frineds and family are terrorized by the killer as the writer and his friend close in. O'Neill's life is crumbling, and he casts a suspicious eye at every person he meets.

The fast-paced action climaxes when Ron O'Neill at last learns the true identity of the Panther in a confrontation that threatens to bring his own life to a painful end.

"The American Joes" by novelist Don Otey reveals the plan of a small group of modern-day patriots who vow to return the country to the federalist principles of its Founding Fathers. Working over decades, these men and the proteges they groom have worked peacefully from within to return the government to conformance with the U.S. Constitution. In constant fear of exposure, they move slowly to reverse the trend toward socialism and big government. The quintessential hero of the novel is 'the American Joe' personified by four dedicated achievers. Their initial foes are domestic and international special interests, but they soon find the greatest threat of all is from within-corrupt, self-serving politics. Written in tense, nail-biting prose, this political thriller could be ripped from today's headlines. It is a cautionary tale that puts the reader on guard to a basic truth: each one of us shares the responsibility for insisting on a return to the principles that made our country great.

Police Detective Nick Bolt is a career crime fighter and an aspiring novelist. Through two unrelated incidents, he has acquired a strange but highly useful talent. A childhood accident gives him both his nickname 'Lightning' and the ability to conjure up mental visions. Years later, a criminal's bullet expands his ability to touching inanimate objects and mentally picturing the people and surroundings through which those items have passed.

Lightning Bolt's unique abilities and police training are severely tested when a relentless adversary from his past reappears. His enemy wages a life-threatening campaign of harassment against Nick, his family and his closest friend.

This adventure relates Nick's fast-paced race to outwit the vicious attacks of his harasser and salvage his family's security. How he copes with each new challenge from his twisted pursuer weaves a tale of police technique, clairvoyance and dogged determination to survive.

"Carl and I must make twenty trips back and forth carrying wounded to those who can offer comfort and medical aid. Each time I look at our litter-now covered with blood and gore-and wonder whether we've done our bit in time. Others scurry about clearing the aftermath of the battle. Burial details are already working to inter the dead before daylight and scavengers descend on this killing ground. The smell is worse than any hog butchering I was ever a party to. Already I can hear the buzz of flies and see the beady little eyes of small animals drawn to the smell of fresh blood. We stand over one soldier writhing in this "sacred ground" as the sergeant called it and lift him ever so gently onto the litter. These men's blood may make the ground sacred, but by now I can see this place for what it actually is-a sea of Virginia mud trying to clutch and claim the dying. This wounded boy wears the blue of the Feds. He's calling out a name and reaching toward me, grasping at me with his trembling fingers as I lean closer. A strange feeling of comradeship comes to me when I realize how like my own fellow soldiers this Yankee fighter looks-just another man doing his duty, whatever his beliefs may be."

"If this strong, fast progressing form of the virus were to be spread somehow to the general population, we could be facing a full-scale outbreak on a level it's hard to imagine. It could turn into a pandemic that would kill thousands, maybe even millions, before we could get it under control-if we can control it "

Forces are being developed that could replace nuclear power as the world's scourge. They begin as tiny molecules altered to do the bidding of ruthless terrorists-the marriage of bioscience and nanotechnology to produce a massive pandemic.

Four close friends, Dan Cooper, Jud Black, Pat O'Leary, and Jim Barnett, are in the business of exposing malicious hackers who make life difficult for computer users. But what they discover is far more serious. In their quest to learn what has caused a good friend to contract a rare disease-dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)-they are thrown into a battle against enemies with staggering powers. Cooper and his pals become the first line of defense against bioterrorists bent on destroying America. The madmen they face have the ability to design and deliver biological attacks that will bring chaos to the world.

Can Dan, Jud, Pat, and Jim stop the opening volley in a pandemic with the potential to decimate the United States' population?

"The thug was dragging Karen away when Pete finally mustered the strength to pull himself to a sitting position. He tried to move toward the door, but they had already exited. Pete watched them pass the window and the biggest, ugliest man he had ever laid eyes on literally threw Karen into the elevator. Jumbo tucked a gun into his shoulder holster. Pete flashed back to Billy's description of Percy the manimal. He'd heard Karen call his name. At least there apparently weren't two gruesome men in the world that were as ugly as this one. Pete would give a million bucks right now for a shotgun to blow Percy's ass all over the hotel.

"Helpless against the armed giant in his present condition, Pete could only slump to the floor as they drove away. What seemed like hours later he slowly clawed his way up the side of the bed. He searched for the telephone to alert Jim Hardin. If she really intended to take the hoodlum to the CD's, Jim was in immediate danger. Pen's phone rang emptily until the answering machine picked up. Pete did all he could at the moment."

Dave Owens, a successful young businessman, is trying to repair a marriage he has seriously damaged with alcohol and addiction to work. Then a new and frightening challenge confronts him. His older brother Kyle is viciously beaten and lies in the hospital. In near panic, Dave rushes back to Springlake, his boyhood hometown, in Virginia.

A chilling puzzle begins to take shape. It involves a nearly forgotten incident during the Owens brothers' youth and Dave's personal nemesis, "Tank Hill." The brothers and their friends are being stalked by a sadistic killer who fears what they may remember. He sets out to eliminate them one by one in horrific ways."Along the way an enticing young woman threatens to detour Dave's efforts to set his personal life straight. He struggles with his feelings while the maniac killer breathes down his neck. The local sheriff makes life difficult for Owens until he uncovers the lawman's real motivation for his animosity.

The spirit of a young Confederate soldier comes to Dave's aid and Owens experiences a jarring epiphany on a battlefield of some 140 years ago.

The heart-stopping outcome is one that neither Dave nor his brother could have anticipated.