Book Cover

St. Catherine's Crown

Lamplight Press, 2013

1917 - Empress Alexandria understands that the Bolsheviks will soon topple the Czar. She charges her godson, Kirik Pirogov, to carry the imperial crown of Catherine the Great and a cache of Romanov jewelry to a secret Czarist refuge in western China. Alexandra, determined to continue the direct line of the Romanov Dynasty, charges her youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia, to forsake Russia and seek refuge in a White Russian community in western China.

Kirik and Anastasia make the perilous journeys across Siberia via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Their story is told against the background of revolution, their hardscrabble life in the Russian village, constant fear of the Soviet secret police, and unscrupulous treasure-hunters.

513 pages - Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches


 

 

 

 

 

 



Paperback $29.00


Texas Residents $32.00

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Abyssinia

Lamplight Press, 2014

In the aftermath of the Italian-Abyssinia war of 1935-1936, the Fascists occupied Abyssinia with an iron-fist. Sofia Russo, an Italian archeologist, is a no-nonsense, courageous woman. She teams with Walter Gregory, an American intelligence agent, to smuggle Uranium 235 ore samples to a western democracy. Pursued by the Italian secret police and the Regia Aeronautica Italiana, the pair has a harrowing escape through the Abyssinian highlands and mountains.

National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist for Action-Adventure!

189 pages

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches


 



 

 

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Aviators, Adventurers, and Assassins

Lamplight Press, 2014

Suffused throughout this conglomeration of novellas and short stories are lovers, blackguards, gallants, and wayfarers doing extraordinary things. A few of the characters are based on real people.

220 pages

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches



 





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Prestor John

Lamplight Press, 2014

Giovanni Cosimo is a Christian knight who was captured during the Third Crusade and spent several years in a gruesome Muslim prison. The Pope ransoms the knight and charges him by a Holy Writ to find Prestor John and command this prince to return to the Church of Rome and pay tribute. For several centuries the legend of the chimerical Prestor John and his fabulous wealthy kingdom with magical powers intrigued the Church, kings, and scholars. The narrative recounts the decades-long adventures of the knight’s search for the mythical prince.

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches


 


 



 

 

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Khartoum

Lamplight Press, 2014

It's January 1885 and Lars and Katja Neufeld, brother and sister, make a daring escape from Khartoum just before the Mahdi's Muslim army capture it and slaughter the Europeans and other infidels. Disguised as Arabs, the pair follows their father's detailed plan: they sail south in a twenty-foot ketch up the Blue Nile. Their goal is to find refuge in Abyssinia, a Christian nation, migrate to German Equatoria, and then sail to Bavaria, their father's home. Their perilous adventures en route include raging waters, venomous reptiles and aggressive crocodiles, and dangerous encounters with Muslim soldiers and slavers.

Khartoum was a finalist in the Writer's League of Texa' Manuscript Contest in 2013.

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches


 




 

 


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Ming Yellow

Lamplight Press, 2015

During the chaos that was China in 1935, Randall Kendrick, a wealthy American collector of fine oriental art, and his savvy daughter, Ingrid, embark on an adventurous quest to purchase a cache of extremely rare Ming yellow porcelains.  General Wu Pei-fu, the vicious warlord of Kansu Province, offers the porcelains for sale to the highest bidder. Traveling with Kendrick is the expatriate Australian photojournalist, Matt Drummond who focuses his eyes through his camera’s viewfinder and on Ingrid. Leading the Kendrick party is Wallace Chung, a suave young hustler who claims to have some connection with the warlord and first-hand knowledge about the porcelains.  The Kendrick party travels in a private railroad coach bound for Kansu Province in western China. Soon they are caught in the maw of China’s interior strife: dueling warlords, bandit gangs, marauding militias, Communist cadres, and elements of Japan’s Kwangtung Army.

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches

 




 

 







 

 

 
 
 

     

Shanghai Express

Lamplight Press, 2017

It’s 1923 and China is in chaos—a weak central government, battling warlords, and bandit gangs are tearing the country apart. Sun Mei-yao, a cashiered Nationalist Army officer, regularly plunders prizes with military precision. Tonight, his goal is the elite British train the Shanghai Express and its wealthy Occidental passengers—not effete ne’er-do-wells but a cadre of extraordinary scalawags who do not take kindly to thuggery: an opium lord, harlots, secret agents, thieves, blackmailers, and killers.

Sun and his brigands capture the train. Loot, murder, and kidnapping ensue.

But the Chinese bandit does not twist the British lion’s tail without repercussions. Shocked at the affront to their privilege and extraterritorial rights, the Occidental nations organize to bring the marauders to heel.

Shelton’s ensuing fictional narrative is based on a real incident. The narrative’s mise en scène is the Roaring ‘20s: jazz, flappers, and the lawlessness that permeated the decade. The finale of this tale closely represents the conclusion of Sun’s actual capture of the Blue Express train on 6 May 1923.

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches

 




 

 







 

 

 
 
 

     

Amelia

Lamplight Press, 2017

Amelia Earhart, the famed aviatrix, vanished somewhere in the south Pacific during her attempt to fly around the world in her specially modified Lockheed Electra in July 1937. "Lost at sea" is the official story. The U. S. Navy was not convinced. The director of the Office of Naval Intelligence tasked his operations officer with uncovering the details of Earhart’s disappearance. His extensive research engendered more questions about government involvement than hard evidence about her disappearance.

Paperback format: 9 x 6 inches

 




 

 







 

 

 
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