ARKANE Thrillers Books 1-3

Book excerpt: Escape into three ARKANE adventures ... STONE OF FIRE: An ancient power. A desperate quest. The clock is ticking. When psychologist and religious expert Dr. Morgan Sierra's sister and niece are kidnapped, she's thrust into a deadly race against time to find twelve ancient stones that could unleash unimaginable power. With only days until Pentecost and the kidnapper's deadline, Morgan must use all her knowledge and resources to track down the artifacts. She's not alone in the hunt. Jake Timber, an enigmatic agent of ARKANE, a secret British agency investigating the supernatural, has his own orders to retrieve the stones at any cost. Torn between her desperate need to save her family and Jake's mission to secure the stones, lines blur as Morgan and Jake forge an uneasy partnership. From the holy sites of Israel and the Vatican to the desert of Tunisia and the Sonoran wilderness of Arizona, Morgan and Jake face sinister forces, ancient traps, and a fanatical enemy determined to use the stones' power for their own dark purposes. Danger, betrayal and a growing attraction complicate their quest. With Pentecost approaching and a storm of apocalyptic proportions brewing, Morgan must confront her past and unearth long-buried secrets to have any hope of saving her family and preventing global catastrophe. Emotions run high and faith is tested as the clock ticks down. Can Morgan stop the stones from falling into the wrong hands, or will she have to choose between saving her family and saving the world? CRYPT OF BONE: Two billion people are about to die... and they’re the lucky ones. When a man in a hospital gown jumps to his death from the Western Wall in Israel, the authorities think it’s just another victim of Jerusalem Syndrome: a religious psychosis triggered by a visit to the holy city. But when a second victim ritually disembowels himself, it’s the sign of much worse to come. Thanatos — a fanatical group dedicated to the destruction of the world — is on the move again. Last time, Morgan and Jake worked together to stop Thanatos from bringing about a dark version of Pentecost. This time, Thanatos is mixing science with sacrilege — combining the Devil’s Bible with mind-control technology to murder a quarter of the human race. Together, Morgan and Jake will travel from the hallowed halls of Oxford, to the labs of a biotech company with a dark agenda, to a chapel made of human bones. They’ll go anywhere, do anything, to stop Thanatos. But they have to hurry. Thanatos is on the rise. Apocalypse is at the gates. And the only way to save a quarter of the world is for Morgan to uncover the secrets of her past... at the cost of her own future. Death awaits in a Crypt of Bone. ARK OF BLOOD: It is the seat of judgment. The pinnacle of holiness. It is the Ark of the Covenant... and it’s the most dangerous weapon in existence. A group of fanatics wearing masks of Egypt’s gods slaughter the curator of Cairo’s most famous museum. A cleaner in Washington, DC, discovers a decapitated head on top of a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. And someone is sharing videos of the deaths with extremists all over the world. It’s a job too big — and too strange — for the normal authorities, but it’s right up the alley of ARKANE, the British agency tasked with investigating mysteries on the edge of the supernatural. Jake is in a coma, nearly killed on a previous mission — so Morgan will have to go it alone. Pursued by vicious mercenaries bent on revenge, hunted by assassins willing to do anything for their cause, Morgan can’t stop, because the Ark of the Covenant is the prize, and it may be more than a simple religious artifact. It may be the secret to ancient alchemy, and the unlocking of a scientific breakthrough that could save the world... or end it.