Lance Morcan's Blog, page 94

‘The Catcher in the Rye’ lives on in our thriller novel ‘The Ninth Orphan’

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the controversial novel that has been associated with several high profile shootings including John Hinckley Jr’s assassination attempt on Ronal Reagan, features prominently in our conspiracy thriller novel, The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy, #1).

References to Salinger’s book are made in the context of the CIA-sanctioned MK-Ultra mind control activities, which made international headlines at the time.

In the following excerpt from The Ninth Orphan, Omega Agency founder Andrew Naylor, uses mind control in an attempt to have his way with Seventeen, the agency’s seventeenth-born orphan-operative and a lady not to be messed with:

Now alone with Seventeen, Naylor stared intently at the young blonde operative. She was as motionless as a statue, staring right through him. She’d been like this for the past couple of minutes, but she didn’t know that. Her eyes had glazed over and she was in some kind of trance. She held a copy of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

Smiling, the Omega director stood up and walked over to the door to check it was locked. He walked back to Seventeen and studied her features. Feeling aroused, he stroked the orphan’s hair then kissed her on the lips. She remained unresponsive.

Minutes earlier, Naylor had hypnotized Seventeen using the MK-Ultra voice commands he’d recently received from Langley. For years, he’d wanted to have his way with Seventeen. Receiving the orphans’ MK-Ultra codes had presented him with the perfect opportunity. It was perfect because she would never remember a thing. The copy of The Catcher in the Rye he’d given her was all part of the mind control program. The book acted as an additional control mechanism to activate hypnotism triggers in the brain.

Still in a trance-like state, Seventeen did not resist Naylor’s sexual advances. The Omega director started to unbutton her blouse when his cell phone suddenly rang. The shrill ringing caused Seventeen to snap out of her trance. She was surprised to see Naylor’s pock-marked face only inches from hers. His lazy eye gave the impression he was staring over her left shoulder, but she knew he was staring directly at her.  

Suddenly feeling guilty, Naylor quickly turned away and answered his phone. “Naylor.” Marcia Wilson was on the other end of the line, calling from CIA headquarters. Naylor listened intently to her news.

Seventeen frowned when she noticed the top button of her blouse was undone. Her gaze strayed to the copy of The Catcher in the Rye on her lap. The orphan had no recollection of picking up the book at any stage. In fact, she’d never even read it. All she knew about the novel was it had been found on the men behind the assassination and attempted assassination of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan respectively, and its author, J.D. Salinger, had significant ties to the CIA.    

The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy, #1) is available via Amazon as a trade paperback and Kindle ebook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056I4FKC  

For more about the disturbing history behind MK-Ultra go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fml1Z5saLH0

 

Happy reading! - Lance & James  

 

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“Why else do you think we are permanently at war?” – A timely quote from ‘The Orphan Factory’

As America – or President Obama at least – seems intent on attacking Syria, I’m reminded of a quote from The Orphan Factory, book two in our conspiracy thriller series, The Orphan Trilogy. In it, Omega Agency Special Agent Tommy Kentbridge asks a young Nine, the ninth-born orphan, “Why else do you think we are permanently at war in various regions all over the world?”

Perhaps the question would be better directed at Obama?

Obama soon to announce a new offensive?

Kentbridge, who is Nine’s mentor and the closest thing to a father figure the lad will ever know, also asks, “And why is it the citizens of this country, one of the richest on earth, get poorer each year?”

Good questions – even if we, the writers, say so ourselves!

Here’s some more from The Orphan Factory:

Special Agent Kentbridge had long-since realized America was not the unified country most people thought it was. Due to his position, he was aware of the extremely fragmented, corrupt and sick state of the nation. He also knew that sickness was entirely due to the conflicting agendas of the various shadow organizations that had infiltrated most Government departments and agencies. Within each power group – be it Congress or the Military-Industrial Complex – there were huge divisions as each of the secret factions strived to be top dog.

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) , is available via Amazon as a Kindle ebook via: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

 

Happy reading! -Lance & James

 

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Trilogy’s romantic sub-plot attracts female readers

Books 1, 2 and 3 in our conspiracy thriller series The Orphan Trilogy (The Ninth Orphan / The Orphan Factory / The Orphan Uprising) have retained their average Amazon reviewer rating of 4.6 out of 5 Stars.

The novels merge fact with fiction, illuminating shadow organizations rumored to actually exist in our world. They reveal a shadow government acting above and beyond the likes of the White House, the FBI, the Pentagon and the NSA. There’s a poignant, romantic sub-plot, too, which possibly accounts for the trilogy’s popularity with female readers.

Plot summaries and average Amazon reviewer ratings (out of 5 Stars) for the three novels follow:

4 Stars

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056I4FKC

The Ninth Orphan: An orphan grows up to become an assassin for a highly secretive organization. When he tries to break free and live a normal life, he is hunted by his mentor and father figure, and by a female orphan he spent his childhood with. On the run, the mysterious man’s life becomes entwined with his beautiful French-African hostage and a shocking past riddled with the darkest of conspiracies is revealed.             

4.7 Stars

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

The Orphan Factory: This coming-of-age spy thriller novel is a prequel to The Ninth Orphan. It’s an epic, atmospheric story that begins with twenty-three genetically superior orphans being groomed to become elite spies in Chicago’s Pedemont Orphanage and concludes with a political assassination deep in the Amazon jungle. Embark on another frenetic journey with Nine, the ninth-born orphan, as he goes on the run across America.                                               

5 Stars

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFC66DM/

The Orphan Uprising: In this sequel to The Ninth Orphan, Nine’s idyllic lifestyle is shattered when his son Francis is abducted by operatives in the employ of the Omega Agency, the shadowy organization that once controlled every aspect of his life. Desperate to find Francis before Omega can harm him, Nine soon finds he’s up against his fellow orphans – all elite operatives as he once was – who are under orders to kill him on sight. He must call on all his former training and skills.

4.4 Stars

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGGM05U/

The Orphan Trilogy: This controversial, high-octane thriller series is available via Amazon as a box set (3 books in 1) at a discounted price. It explores a plethora of conspiracies involving real organizations like the CIA, NSA, MI6 and the UN, and public figures such as President Obama, Queen Elizabeth II as well as the Clinton, Marcos and Bush families. The trilogy also contains the kind of intimate character portraits usually associated with psychological thrillers.

 

Happy Reading! — Lance & James

 

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We humans can survive anything, according to this eternal optimist

Nuclear holocausts, killer plagues and collisions with asteroids hold no fear for science writer and eternal optimist Annalee Newitz, author of the bestseller, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction.

Newitz believes humans will survive whatever our solar system chooses to throw our way in the coming millennia.

Why so certain? “Because the world has been almost completely destroyed at least half a dozen times already in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history,” she says, “and every single time there have been survivors.”

Annalee Newitz

An Amazon Best Book of the Month in May 2013, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember reminds us that, “In its 4.5 billion-year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?”

Asteroids hold no fears for Newitz

Newitz claims that, as a species, Homo sapiens are at a crossroads. “Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference. It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters – from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation – resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 per cent of the planet’s species died out.”

In Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Newitz explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation; humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just during the last million years. But every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.

This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow.

“From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.”

The book has resonated with readers and reviewers alike.

Amazon reviewer Charles Mann, author of 1491, says:

“…few things are more enjoyable than touring the apocalypse from the safety of your living room. Even as Scatter, Adapt, and Remember cheerfully reminds us that asteroid impacts, mega-volcanos and methane eruptions are certain to come, it suggests how humankind can survive and even thrive. Yes, Annalee Newitz promises, the world will end with a bang, but our species doesn’t have to end with a whimper. Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a guide to Homo sapiens‘ next million years. I had fun reading this book and you will too.”

  Daniel H. Wilson, author of Robopocalypse, says:

Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a refreshingly optimistic and well thought out dissection of that perennial worry: the coming apocalypse. While everyone else stridently shouts about the end of days, this book asks and answers a simple question: ‘If it’s so bad, then why are we still alive?’ I found myself in awe of the incredible extinction events that humankind—and life in general—has already survived, and Newitz inspires us with engaging arguments that our race will keep reaching the end of the world and then keep living through it. Scatter, Adapt, and Remember intimately acquaints the reader with our two-hundred-thousand-year tradition of survival—nothing less than our shared heritage as human beings.”

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‘The Catcher in the Rye’ still casts a spell – even after 62 years

Edward Norton, John Cusack, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Martin Sheen are among a star-studded line up of A-Listers who headline a soon-to-be-released documentary on J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.

J.D. Salinger in 1952

September 5, 2013 is the scheduled release date of the Weinstein Company-distributed doco, which the publicists say “provides an unprecedented look inside the private world of J.D. Salinger”.

Listed as one of the best novels of the 20th Century, The Catcher in the Rye was also the most censored book and the second most taught book in US public schools at one point. Its vulgarity, sexual references and alleged undermining of family values have seen it earn the dubious distinction of being one of the most frequently challenged books since the early 1990’s.

Total sales 65 million and rising.

The Catcher in the Rye has been associated with several high profile shootings including and John Hinckley Jr’s assassination attempt on Ronal Reagan and Mark David Chapman’s shooting of John Lennon. Chapman was arrested with his own worn copy of the book on his person.

The Catcher in the Rye features prominently in our conspiracy thriller series The Orphan Trilogy – most notably in book one, The Ninth Orphan. Our references to Salinger’s book are made in the context of the CIA-sanctioned MK-Ultra mind control activities, which made international headlines at the time. Google ”MK-Ultra” some time… It makes for sobering reading!

This book acknowledges Catcher’s hold on people.

Meanwhile, Associated Press reports the authors of a new J.D. Salinger biography claim they have cracked one of publishing’s greatest mysteries: what the author of The Catcher in the Rye was working on during the last half century of his life.

AP reports a series of posthumous Salinger releases are planned after 2015, according to David Shields and Shane Salerno, whose book Salinger will be published on 3 September… Providing by far the most detailed report of previously unreleased material, the book’s authors cite “two independent and separate sources” who they say have “documented and verified” the information.

The Salinger books would revisit Catcher protagonist Holden Caulfield and draw on Salinger’s World War II years and his immersion in eastern religion. The material also would feature new stories about the Glass family of Franny and Zooey and other Salinger works…

Over the past 50 years, there has been endless and conflicting speculation over what Salinger was doing during his self-imposed retirement. That Salinger continued to write is well documented. The author himself told the New York Times in 1974 that he wrote daily, although only for himself.

But there is no consensus on what he was writing and no physical evidence of what Salinger had reportedly stashed in a safe in his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Salinger estate…has remained silent on the subject since the author’s death in January 2010. -AP.

 

And so the intrigue over The Catcher in the Rye and its mysterious author continues!

 

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‘The Orphan Trilogy’ dominates most popular conspiracy fiction lists

Our thriller series The Orphan Trilogy dominates three of the top five most popular conspiracy fiction books listed in Goodreads.com’s favorite Intrigue Book Lists – alongside Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

Conspiracy Fiction    677 books    —    293 voters

The Orphan Trilogy 3-in-1 box set comes in at #3 on the list while The Ninth Orphan and The Orphan Factory come in at #4 and #5 respectively.

Best Technothrillers Ever    346 books    —    266 voters

The Ninth Orphan occupies the #2 spot in the Best Technothrillers Ever category.

Tight Plot Novels    22 books    —    25 voters

It goes one better to finish at #1 in the Tight Plot Novels category.

Best Action-Adventure Novels    265 books    —    251 voters

The Orphan Uprising, book three in the trilogy, tops the best Action-Adventure Novels category. Our historical adventure-romance, Fiji: A Novel, comes in at #3 on that list (above). The Orphan Uprising is also #2 in the Most Violent Action Novels category (below).

Best violent action novels    65 books    —    124 voters

(The above listings are current as at 29 August, 2013. They change daily).

There’s a ton of recommended reading on Goodreads.com’s favorite Intrigue Book Lists. For the full list go to: http://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/intrigue

 

Happy reading! – Lance

 

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Woody Allen’s latest film “one of his best” according to this reviewer

Truthdig.com movie reviewer Richard Schickel reckons Woody Allen’s latest movie, “Blue Jasmine”, starring Cate Blanchett, is one of his best.

Woody Allen has done it again.

In a perceptive review in the Arts & Culture columns of that must-subscribe-to online site, Truthdig.com, Schickel says, “…this (film) is one of his best—sober, sometimes excoriating, likely lingering in its effect…People grow and change if they’re lucky. And Allen is, among other things, lucky. Imagine—77 years old and still making movies as good as “Blue Jasmine,” when most directors his age are out of work or collecting dubious awards.”

Excerpts of Schickel’s review follow:

When we meet Jasmine French (Cate Blanchett) at the beginning of Woody Allen’s new movie, she is, with the help of booze, pills and endless monologues, in distress. She is alarmingly close to a full-scale breakdown. By the end of “Blue Jasmine,” she has, of course, gone completely around the bend.

Blanchett as Jasmine French in Blue Jasmine.

It was not always like this with her. Once, not long ago, she was rich. Now she is reduced to living humbly with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in a very tight apartment. Once, the idea of working for a living could be dismissed with the wave of a careless hand. Now she’s lucky to have a job—at which she’s terrible—as a receptionist in a dentist’s office. Once, she had a glamorous marriage (to a splendidly slippery Alec Baldwin, no less). He has become a major actor, without anyone especially noticing how good he is.

Alec Baldwin “splendidly slippery”

The men who slide in and out of Jasmine’s life are a dismal lot. You can’t imagine any former life in which she would manage more than a few words of strained politeness with them. So what we have here are the makings of a great performance, which Blanchett delivers. I’m not someone who regularly proclaims Oscar nominations this early—or ever, for that matter. But this is one of them. She is, putting it mildly, strung tight—lost, quivering, a woman of interior and exterior dialogues aimed at getting a grip on herself. Sometimes it seems as if that may actually happen. But she always falls back in disarray.

It gives nothing away to say that the movie arrives at an end that you can pretty much see coming from its first reel. We leave her muttering to herself without a hope in hell of finding her way back to something like what? Not sanity, surely, because sanity has never been an issue with her. She’s really just an everyday neurotic, the kind of person you more or less avoid, if possible. Or to whom you give the shortest possible shrift. Blanchett is up for all of this. This is a wonderfully shifty performance—full of nervous laughter, devious strategies, no small amount of desperation, and moments of slightly eerie calm. There are also violent confrontations, which startle and discomfit you.

For the full review go to: http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/woody_allens_latest_shows_hes_still_got_it_20130802/

 

Woody Allen on the set of Blue Jasmine

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SILENT FEAR feature film inspired by murders at Gallaudet University for the Deaf

Our British thriller feature film SILENT FEAR was inspired by the murders of two deaf students at America’s prestigious Gallaudet University for the Deaf, in Washington, some 13 years ago.

Gallaudet University

It was a case that gripped America from the time of the first murder, in September 2000, until an arrest was made following the second murder some five months later. Washington Metropolitan Police didn’t know if it was an ‘inside job’ and for a time nearly everyone connected to Gallaudet was under suspicion.

Signing in class at Gallaudet

A copy of a 2001 CNN report on the murder investigation follows:

Suspect arrested in Gallaudet murders

February 13, 2001

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murders of two students at Gallaudet University, police said Tuesday.

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey said 20-year old Joseph Mesa, a freshman at the university for the deaf, was charged with two counts of felony murder for the deaths of Benjamin Varner, 19, whose body was found February 3, and Eric Plunkett, also 19, who was killed in September.

Ramsey said the motive for the murders was robbery.

“We have sufficient evidence to charge him with two counts of felony murder,” Ramsey said.

Mesa will be arraigned Wednesday in District of Columbia Superior Court.

Varner, of San Antonio, Texas, died of multiple stab wounds to his face and body. Plunkett, of Burnsville, Minnesota, was beaten to death. He suffered from cerebral palsy.

Dr. I. King Jordan, president of Gallaudet, said there is a sense of relief that the suspected killer has been caught.

“At the same time, there’s a real sense of sadness that the individual who is said to be responsible for this is from our community,” Jordan said.

Both students were killed in Cogswell Hall, which will remain closed for the remainder of the semester, university officials said. Mesa lived in the dorm next to Cogswell Hall.

Another killing occurred at Gallaudet in 1981, when a male student stabbed his boyfriend to death after a heated argument. The murderer was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Gallaudet, was founded partly by President Abraham Lincoln nearly 140 years ago.

When first heard about the murders, it inspired us to write the SILENT FEAR screenplay. We found the idea of a serial killer at large in a university for the Deaf chilling and we immediately recognized it was high concept and tailor-made for gripping cinematic viewing.

While SILENT FEAR could be set just about anywhere in the civilized world, we’ve chosen to set it in London. In the London borough of South Kensington to be exact. We believe the thriller genre suits London and this story has a very British feel to it. That said, we are confident it will appeal to audiences worldwide – both normal hearing and Deaf audiences.

Here’s the SILENT FEAR premise in brief:

Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at London’s Wandsworth University for the Deaf. Her investigation coincides with a student contracting a deadly flu virus, which results in the university being sealed off from the outside world. When more deaf students are murdered, it’s clearly the work of a serial killer. The stakes rise when Valerie becomes the killer’s next target and the deadly virus claims more lives.

Here’s our teaser trailer for SILENT FEAR: http://youtu.be/Ll9O9dedd44

New Zealand producers Brent Macpherson, of Stretch Productions, and Ronel Schodt, of Shotz Productions, aim to shoot SILENT FEAR on location in London as a likely 3D production in 2014. They welcome expressions of interest from experienced British producers interested in collaborating on this highly commercial feature film project as well as from A-List directors interested in helming it.

http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1935228/

http://stretchproductions.co.nz/

www.shotzproductions.co.nz

 

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‘Fiji’ is a novel befitting of an era in which lust was in plentiful supply

One not-so-flattering book reviewer labelled Fiji: A Novel, our historical adventure-romance, “a bodice-ripper” and took umbrage with the amount of sex that features in it.

We maintained, and still maintain, it’s impossible to accurately portray life in exotic 19th Century Fiji, or anywhere in the South Pacific for that matter, without showing these were – how can I put this delicately – lustful times.

Thankfully, most reviewers of Fiji believe we’ve captured the era beautifully.

The Kindle Book Review (UK) describes Fiji as “A perfect combination of romance and action.”

Great Historicals Book Reviews says it’s “A gripping and graphic story of historic Fiji.”

Random Writings Book Reviews, of Suva, Fiji, gave it “5 stars because that’s the maximum allowed.”

Here’s one of my favorite passages from Fiji. It captures some of the cultural differences Europeans of the day encountered when they came into contact with the local Fijians…

As the day drew to a close at Momi Bay, Nathan wandered around the village observing the Qopa preparing their evening meals. Aware he was a guest of their ratu, the villagers greeted him with smiles. Their greetings were genuine. Word had already spread that the vulagi was bringing muskets to their village.

Nathan forced himself to respond in friendly fashion to the villagers. He viewed this pre-trading time simply as a charade he had to endure.

The American flinched involuntarily as he watched two young men barbecuing a large leatherback turtle over an open fire. Writhing and hissing futilely, the turtle struggled until it finally succumbed to the heat. Nearby, family members roasted a pig in a lovo, an underground oven comprised of heated stones. Nathan noticed an old man tending the pig was using a large bone that looked suspiciously like a human femur.

                 

Nearby, teenage boys expertly split coconut shells on the sharpened end of a stake in the ground. Their mother rebuked them, slapping the oldest on his bare back when some of the milk spilled out of the shells.

Looking around, Nathan observed armed lookouts patrolling the village perimeters. Above them, rain clouds threatened, reminding him the wet season was approaching. Again, he studied the strange structure that sat atop four high poles near the meeting house and wondered what it contained that was so valuable it needed guarding around the clock. A new guard paced up and down in front of it, spear in hand.

Glancing at the nearby mission station, Nathan’s thoughts strayed to Susannah. Apart from a flickering light that shone from the mission house windows, the station was already in darkness. He wondered how Susannah and her father were passing their time and what they’d be talking about.

Iremaia suddenly appeared in the open doorway of his large bure. Seeing Nathan, he beckoned to him to join him. Nathan hurried over and followed the old ratu inside. There, he found a cooking fire crackling in the center of the gloomy, smoke-filled bure. Its flames lit up the faces of Iremaia’s clan, who included his four wives and an assortment of relatives of all ages.

           

The unwelcoming Joeli was among them. Akanisi, the ratu’s first wife and mother of Joeli, supervised two slave girls who were tending the fire. There was so much laughter and chatter nobody could hear themselves speak. Nathan was greeted with welcoming smiles from all except Joeli. It was almost as if the ratu’s son sensed the true intentions that lay behind Nathan’s ready smile. The American worried that Joeli was going to be an obstacle to his forthcoming trade.

Looking around, Nathan saw that, even here, there was evidence of past conflicts. Several shrunken heads hung from the thatched roof and traditional weapons of various descriptions lay scattered around.

Iremaia motioned to Nathan to sit next to him. Sitting down, he noted the dirt floor was covered in mats woven from pandanus leaves. Marveling at their beautiful colors, he would learn later the effect was achieved by burying the leaves in mud and laboriously boiling them with other plants. Parrot feathers lined the outsides, adding to the colorful effect.

Generous helpings of steaming hot yams, sweet potatoes, and shellfish were carried in by slaves from the lovo outside. Diced raw fish was added and coconut cream was poured over the food, adding to its tantalizing appearance and aroma.

Selaima, a fetching slave girl who looked about sixteen but was in fact twenty, served the food in wooden bowls carved from the timber of some of the numerous varieties of trees that flourished in the region. She served Iremaia first, then Nathan, smiling openly at him as she did so.

After dinner, the men drank kava while Selaima and several other girls entertained them by performing a meke, or traditional dance. Wearing only grass skirts, their nubile bodies gleamed in the firelight as they danced to the beat of a hollowed-out log that served as a drum. The accompaniment was provided by two men who, using the palms of their hands, expertly pounded out an ancient rhythm.

Nathan watched, entranced, as the smiling dancers performed. Glancing at his companions, he saw they, too, were entranced. To a man, they appeared to have eyes only for Selaima. Studying the slave girl, he could understand why: she was very easy on the eye—especially while performing an erotic dance as she was now.

The American was beginning to feel the effects of the kava he’d been drinking. He’d forced himself to partake of the vile liquid in order not to offend Iremaia. Already his lips were numb and his brain felt like it was going the same way.

The rain that threatened earlier arrived with a vengeance as it only can in the tropics. It beat a steady tattoo on the bure’s roof, threatening to drown out the sound of drumming. The drummers responded by intensifying their efforts and the dancing became frenetic as the dancers tried to keep pace.

Watching the semi-naked girls dancing, Nathan’s thoughts strayed to Susannah and he wondered what her naked form looked like.

 

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Fiji: A Novel is available via Amazon as a trade paperback and Kindle ebook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057YCZM0/

 

Happy reading! – Lance

 

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Another milestone for ‘The Ninth Orphan’ conspiracy thriller

Our conspiracy thriller The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy, #1) has achieved another milestone, amassing forty 5-Star reviews on Amazon.

The latest Amazon reviewer, Grace H. Busch, of Brazil, says:

Good suspense the whole time. I had difficulty going to bed at night because I wanted to see what would happen.

In The Ninth Orphan, an orphan grows up to become an assassin for a highly secretive organization. When he tries to break free and live a normal life, he is hunted by his mentor and father figure, and by a female orphan he spent his childhood with. On the run, the mysterious man’s life becomes entwined with his beautiful French-African hostage and a shocking past riddled with the darkest of conspiracies is revealed.

But can the ninth-born orphan ever get off the grid? To find out you’ll need to go on a tumultuous journey around the globe to such far-flung locations as China, France, the Philippines, Andorra, America, England, Germany and French Polynesia. The frenetic cat-and-mouse chase moves from airports to train stations and hidden torture prisons, taking the reader on a shocking, nail-biting ride into the world’s closet of skeletons that goes beyond conspiracy theories to painful reality.

Fast-paced, totally fresh and original, filled with deep and complex characters, The Ninth Orphan is a controversial, high-octane thriller with an edge. Merging fact with fiction, it illuminates shadow organizations rumored to actually exist in our world. The novel explores a plethora of conspiracies involving real organizations like the CIA, MI6, and the UN, and public figures such as President Obama as well as the Clinton, Marcos and Bush families.

Tackling genetic selection, mind control and secret societies, The Ninth Orphan exposes a global agenda designed to keep the power in the hands of a select few. The novel’s antagonists are members of a shadow government acting above and beyond the likes of the White House, the FBI, the Pentagon and the NSA. Could something like this ever take place? Or, is it already taking place right now?

This unique and unpredictable thriller also has a poignant, romantic sub-plot. The story contains the kind of intimate character portraits usually associated with psychological novels.

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The Ninth Orphan (The Orphan Trilogy, #1) is available as a trade paperback and Kindle ebook via Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056I4FKC

 

Happy reading! – Lance

 

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