Aiden Lynch is a survivor—only 16 years old, he's seen himself through near-starvation on the Kansas prairie, a brutal journey on the Oregon trail, and backbreaking work in a lumber camp. Now he's reached the glittering city of San Francisco, and though his future is uncertain, promise lies ahead. Luck seems to favor him as he manages to stay one step ahead of trouble, even in the city's notoriously dangerous Barbary Coast. And it is pure fortune that leads him to a wealthy family, and then the high-stakes poker game in which he wins a ship—fully outfitted and ready for trade. The trade he has inherited: importing guano, a highly potent fertilizer, from island mines in Peru.But what he finds in Peru is a savage business—conditions at the mines are unthinkable, the workers forced into servitude. When Aiden becomes involved with a miner who claims to be a kidnapped Chinese nobleman, all his loyalties are called into question, and he's plunged into a dangerous game.

A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of the toes of his left foot to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships.

Smart-witted detective Chicago Nordejoong and her sailing partner and lover, Alex, barely survive a hurricane while en route to Crooked Island only to find themselves entangled in a covert scientific project.

With the world poised on the brink of war with Iraq, former government agent and current pilot Alex Sanders is asked to fly a body to Miami, where he is caught up in blackmail, murder, and smuggling.

While diving off Osprey Reef, Chicago, the daughter of a Norwegian sea captain and a Trinidadian woman, and her Haitian assistant, Umbi, have their boat stolen, a crime that embroils Chicago with a federal agent, danger, and murder