Books

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Geologist Trace Brandon has been in Mali less than two months. He’s nearly been killed twice, lost a drilling rig to a well-placed RPG, and fallen for Peace Corps volunteer Molly Wainwright . All pretty much SOP for West Africa, until his friend Gordon Watson is brutally kidnapped by Al Qaeda .
Running out of time to meet the ransom demands, Trace turns to a Malian arms dealer and a French-Canadian ex-mobster for help. Together, they come up with a risky, highly illegal scheme to rescue Gordon.

Geologist Trace Brandon and his partner Will Coffee are just back from Liberia, West Africa. Cashed-up and looking for a new venture, they once again team up with Cyrus “The Virus” McSweeny. This time the quarry is the silver-rich ore of the old Ruby Mining District. And this time they’ll not only have the Pantelli crime family to deal with, but also lumberman Autry Ollinger—three hundred pounds of obnoxiousness whose preferred method of negotiation is a right hook. 

Life along the Rio Grande is good. His two ex-wives are behaving, his girlfriend is beautiful, owns a condo on South Padre Island, and is helping him win—most of the time—his battle with booze. But then the Ochoa Cartel shoots down a DEA Blackhawk helicopter using a US-made Stinger missile, the wife of a corrupt judge dies in a mysterious accident, and Steel’s friend, Dennis Deleon, is found murdered on his fishing boat—his privates impaled on a large fish hook.

Acting on a hunch, geologist Trace Brandon discovers the portal to the lost Sullivan Mine. Against his better judgement, he enters the nineteenth century workings and is nearly killed collecting ore samples. The assays are equally deadly—high-grade pitchblende uranium. A worthless gangue mineral in the 1890s, but potentially worth millions in today’s market.

Forced out of the DEA after 20 years, Hardin "Stainless" Steel lands a new gig as Sheriff of Cameron County, Texas. Twice divorced and battling a drinking habit, he's now dating Rory Roughton—a fiery, wealthy Texan determined to keep him on track. But things spiral fast: his best friend is nearly shot down smuggling pot, Rory is kidnapped by a Russian mercenary working for a ruthless Mexican cartel, and the Cuban Mafia wants Steel dead.

Geologist Trace Brandon has traded mining in Washington State for the sunshine and warm waters of the Cayman Islands. For the past year, his only encounters with crooks have been social, and no one has tried to kill him. But a phone call from Cyrus “the Virus” McSweeny lures Trace into a dangerous new mining project. This time the query is West African alluvial diamonds: rare and extremely valuable…green diamonds.

On August 18, 1882, Joe La Fleur discovered a gold-bearing quartz vein near the headwaters of War Creek, high in the Cascade Range of Washington State. Later the same day . . . he lost it. One hundred and thirty years later, geologist Trace Brandon re-discovers the vein, guarded by a skeleton with a flint arrowhead imbedded in a femur, and a carved wooden owl—admonitions not to desecrate hallowed ground.