Lasseter's Truth

Jack Johnson is both lucky and unlucky. He survives the Vietnam war as a decorated helicopter pilot, marries the girl he left behind, and lands on his feet at Australia’s leading advertising agency, as a launch pad to spectacular success in the industry. Lucky, you might say.

But luck can change. Jack is hit with a bogus criminal charge that chases him into the Great Australian Desert, in a quest for Lasseter’s fabled gold reef.

But Jack is not the only one looking. A mysterious Chinese company called Triple Eight is buying up leases in the desert, and people are dying.

Back home, he leaves not only a heartbroken wife but a beautiful and very determined daughter who has had her own problems. Expelled from Australia’s most prestigious public school, Tess Johnson vows to clear her father’s name.

Lasseter’s Truth follows them both as they take on the odds. A story that ranges from the greed of the nineties, into a famous legend of Australia’s outback, with a compelling climax for our own time.

Older

A sociopath managing an aged care facility: What could go wrong?

Precocious and pretty Maxine Gilbert is a clever and talented nine-year-old, adored by a doting father. She is also cruel, sadistic and without remorse, delighting in manipulating others and torturing small animals. When her mother is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, Maxine is disgusted, not just by her mother’s disability, but by the inconvenience it brings. Watching a nurse care for her mother, Maxine learns that nurses can hurt or heal. Maxine decides to be a nurse when she grows up.

Forty years on, after countless complaints against her nursing in various clinical care settings, Maxine scams a job as Managing Director of an aged care facility, Treetops, and the residents are in for a rough time.

Under Maxine’s management, physical and medical restraint of residents is encouraged, and neglect, poor hygiene, and restrictions of residents’ liberty, nourishment and medical support are exhorted. Frightened, depressed, and malnourished residents are left isolated, locked away, and laying in their own waste. They develop excruciating infections, suffer illness, and even die. Maxine faces rising antagonism from Treetops’ residents, and their friends and family. 

A new carer at Treetops, Seleena, who recently escaped an abusive marriage, cannot stay silent. Along with warning residents, and others, Seleena writes a letter of complaint. After finding a suspicious lump in her breast, could Maxine, who always hated illness and vulnerability in others, finally learn compassion? Or will she continue her ruthless ways?

The De Molay Complex

The story begins with the main hero, Ben Arnold, when he is 11 years old. You see this young child on an almost suicidal mission. And after he loses his parents he is sent to the learning rooms, deep at the bottom of the De Molay complex; this is where all De Molay orphans are sent. There you see the other seven main characters within the Omega Squadron. The story then jumps forward 20 years. The now Hollywood heartthrob and chief director of the De Molay, U.S. Chapter, Ben Arnold, hears about the gruesome murders taking place in New York. And with his Omega unit, sets about stopping the monster. Army girl, Staff Sergeant Edwards, is on a mission in Mexico. And on her return, you then learn about the gateways all around America, which she uses in Florida. When she arrives back in New York, within minutes she stumbles upon a near-death situation for Ben Arnold within the gateway exit, where she goes on and saves his life. Later, a huge battle ensues at Lake Titicaca, on land and underwater between Ancient aliens, the U.S. Army, and an ancient religious order.

The Gate in the Fence

The book is about two neighbours who live in houses separated by a fence with a gate in it. It was there before either of them moved in. The gate provides easy access between the two properties. One of the neighbours is an ex-war vet who lives alone and is struggling with life and relationships after his combat experiences. The other property houses a family: a bank manager and his wife. The husband, Michael moves in first to take up his new role at the bank, while his wife stays on to sell the old house. In his new role he inherits a PA who sees her new boss as a bit of challenge, in more ways than one. Katie, Michael’s wife finally settles in to life at the new home, until one morning there is an unexpected knock at the front door. Who is it, and what do they want? What happens next will change all of their lives forever. The twists and turns in the storyline will have you wanting to know what happens next. Love, deception, deceit, planning, scheming, strength, courage, murder, revenge – the story has it all. Where will it all end and where will they all end up? Or will it end at all?

The Last Epitaph

In a world ravaged by a religious war that has claimed the lives of billions, scientists race to find a solution in a top-secret lab. Patrick Jarborn is the last hope for humanity, but when the lab is overrun, he and his guardian Gloria must flee for survival. Along the way, they discover Sarah, another test subject with a crucial role in humanity’s future. Together, they embark on a perilous journey through a world they only know from books, facing unimaginable threats as they search for safety. As they navigate the crumbling ruins of civilization, Patrick and Sarah find solace in each other, and hope for a new era of peace. The Last Epitaph is a heart-wrenching tale of survival and the power of love in the face of humanity’s darkest hour.

The Last Wish

Tom isn’t anything to anyone, or at least he wasn’t until the dying wish of his father sent him on a seemingly impossible trek to find a lost wartime lover, unwittingly throwing Tom into a maelstrom of violence, death and romance. An exciting and sometimes humorous escapade which started when a bereaved son had nothing better to do.

The Trap

In The Trap, prepare yourself for a high-stakes thriller that spans continents and cultures, unravelling over eight tension-filled years. Primarily set in Thailand, the narrative also takes you through Russia, the United States, and North Korea, offering a penetrating look into the dark corridors of statecraft, media manipulation, and international intrigue.

Caught in a web of global machinations are an American man, his Russian wife, and their dual-nationality son. Their international background, once a symbol of unity, quickly becomes a liability as they are unwittingly pulled into a geopolitical crisis that threatens to consume them.

As the complex drama unfolds, relationships are strained, convictions are tested, and love itself comes under scrutiny. Amidst the grim backdrop of corruption, crime, and power plays, the family’s hope for a return to normalcy becomes both their driving force and their ultimate question: Do they possess the resilience, strength, and faith to escape what increasingly appears to be an inescapable trap?

The Twin Behind the Curtain

A group led by American Alan Mackenzie daringly escaped from communist Hungary during the brutal Soviet repression of the popular uprising of 1956.

Twelve years later, at the height of the Cold War, Alan and two of the Hungarian participants, Frank and Maria, are reunited to help organize the defection of a high-ranking East German official who can identify communist moles in the American government. The resources of the American intelligence agencies could not be used to find moles within their own ranks; therefore, the President and the Secretary of State decided to find help elsewhere.

Under difficult conditions, the defector is extricated, concealed in an American tour group of vacationing movie technicians and small-time actors traveling by bus through Austria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland.

The operation is flawlessly planned, and yet something goes wrong. The disappearance is discovered within a few hours. Due to the high rank of the missing official, the police investigation turns overnight into a massive manhunt involving the tour passengers in an increasingly dangerous contest of wits with the feared Stasi, the East German secret police. Under pressure from their highest party leaders, the frustrated Stasi escalate their search into obsessive, desperate actions.

Thursday

Two conflicting weather systems, after wreaking havoc in North America and the West Indies, come across the Atlantic, the first in the far North, the second moving swiftly past the Azores. Both are held up by a massive anti-cyclone over Northern Russia and intensify, the first in the North Sea off Norway, blowing a hurricane southward, the second centred over Oxford, blowing a hurricane up the English Channel.

During the spring tides in February, these systems meet off Dogger Bank, creating a massive storm surge, which firstly devastates Holland and the northern European coastline before moving up the River Thames. The wave is so high, it swamps the container ports and the Thames Barrier, bringing chaos, havoc and destruction to London.

After flooding the road tunnels at Dartford, the sea-surge inundates the London City Airport before entering the underground, firstly at London Bridge, flooding the rail tunnels under massive pressure, causing death, destruction and disaster.

David, an A level student who is aware of these weather systems, cuts school to travel into Central London with his girlfriend. They witness the wave crashing through Tower Bridge, ripping HMS Belfast from its moorings and demolishing part of London Bridge, flooding Bermondsey and Southwark and toppling the London Eye.

This story is about an event which could happen, how individuals might react under such stress and pressure and what the outcome could be.

Train of Events

The best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong.

A London gang of criminals perfect an audacious train robbery, netting £2 million in used banknotes destined for incineration.

Things go wrong in the execution of the robbery near Newcastle, and that sets off a train of events, that no one can control. Following the money is no use – since nobody knows where the money is, apart from Geordie Jones.

The Mob sends one of their gangsters up to Newcastle to find the money. Scotland Yard sends up one of their detectives. The local police are also involved.

Set in the 1990s, Train of Events is a gritty, ‘Newcastle Noir’ thriller. It pulls no punches in its lively description of gangsters, policemen and detectives, journalists and greedy citizens. The lifestyles are accurately rendered and we hold our breath as the scenes march on to a conclusion.

Come with Bill Dawson on a white knuckle ride through the underworld, which you won’t forget in a hurry!