A hot and steamy night, a hideous four-legged monster, and a terrified little girl, are forebodings of horror on an island paradise in the Caribbean. A mutilated body in a rainforest reservoir and a terrifying plane crash point to a ruthless, covert Organization, which has taken over its government. Soon, an English family and their friends find themselves in unwilling combat with a hidden threat to world stability. As the struggle moves from the island of St. Barbe's, to the United States, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, they and their friends are almost destroyed by this seemingly invincible menace.
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
Leeward Estate Hotel, St. Barbe’s, The West Indies
The sun had set, and it was dark, and Bobbie Calluna was as restless as any seven-year-old with nothing to do. Her parents were busy talking grown-up stuff, something mysterious about money. They didn’t even notice when she slipped away. She wandered round the big artificial pond beyond the lawn in front of the hotel. Nasty, night-flying bugs followed her, some of them biting. She stopped to scratch her leg, then sat on a garden seat beneath one of the two lights set at each end of the oval sheet of water. They were made of wrought iron like old English street lamps, but weren’t very bright, and the shadows beneath the two seagrape trees behind the seat were pitch black. For the past few days, Bobbie had been anxious to look in the pond; someone said that fairies danced on its surface once it got dark. She waited patiently. Even though it was night, it was still hot and sticky, maybe too hot for the fairies. She stretched and glanced at her watch; it was almost eight o’clock.
Bobbie stiffened. There was a sound from the deep shadows beneath the seagrape tree some fifteen feet behind her, like a faint hiss. Was it a bat? But the tree had long since borne its clusters of fruit, and the big bats that fed on them were gone. There it was again, but this time it sounded like scratching, and went on for several seconds. Then she smelt something; the odor was sickly and putrid. There was no one in sight, and Bobbie began to tremble and decided it was time to leave. She jumped to her feet. There was a muffled snort from beneath the seagrape, and that did it. She ran and ran as fast as her legs could work, down the crazy paving that circled the pond, then off to the left through the dark shrubbery toward the lawn. Would some monstrous thing suddenly leap out in front of her? But nothing appeared from behind the black patches of vegetation. When she reached the hundred-foot expanse of grass in front of the car park, she began to lose her breath and had to slow down a little. There was a panting sound from close behind. It seemed almost on top of her. Not daring to look, she started to scream and scream and scream. She felt sure she would be thrown to the ground, but there at last was the front door, brightly lit, and open. Once inside, she turned. On the edge of the lawn, where the light from the car park was dim, a huge four-legged creature loped purposefully away and melted into the darkness down the driveway.
Professional Reviews
Nancy Mehl, reviewer, Myshelf.com
A group of people thrown together at the Leeward Hotel on the small island of St. Barbe’s have a lot in common. Too much. Jon Moresby lost both parents in a car wreck. Anna Kristina Andersson watched her fiancé shot to death by rebel soldiers in El Salvador on the evening news. Judge Marvin Winchester lost his wife in the tragic crash of Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Now, circumstances cause all of them to find themselves in the middle of another nightmare--and no one will escape unscathed.
Meg and Peter Calluna run the Leeward Estate Hotel. They live on St. Barbe’s with their daughter, Bobbie, and her dog, Tonto. But, something else has made its home on the island: a monster nicknamed “The Guard.” The emergence of the beast, the disappearance of a couple staying in the hotel, and the finding of a body that seemingly vanishes herald the beginning of a mystery that begins to unravel with terrifying consequences. Who is “The Organization”? And why are the police on the island trying to keep its inhabitants from leaving? Murder, espionage, and a threat that could put the entire world at risk unfold before the eyes of the frightened inhabitants of the Leeward Hotel. A race to find the truth before it’s too late puts all their lives at risk.
D. Edward Bradley has written a pulse-pounding thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The plot is intricate and compelling and will hold your attention from beginning to end.
The fifth and final book of the Jade Owl Legacy sees a full battle for life as we know it. The world is threatened by the denizens of the Jade Village leading the China Hans through a fantastical world and to a conclusive battle.
