David Drake

10 to 15 year olds. Adam Martin, a thirteen year old boy on crutches, lived with his grandfather in a rundown part of a city. Even so, he maintained a happy outlook on life. He was smarter than most of us and used his powerful brain to solve mysteries that kept popping up around him. He loved those that had puzzles or secret codes associated with them. In Book One - the Puzzling Code - he and his grandfather take on a team of foreign agents who are trying to keep them from finding a valuable stash of loot hidden one hundred years earlier and only recently made known to them in a secret code discovered in one of his grandfather's old books. Lots of good conversations between Adam and his grandfather in and among action, danger, and adventure.

The Fifth in the Series: Orvie assists a 12 year old boy and his older brother as they struggle against unknown bad guys who are trying to ruin their tour business in southern Florida. They encounter hand grenades, dynamite explosions, and other dangers as they work to protect themselves and find a hidden treasure on the boys' private island - Doubloon Island. An underwater cave filled with dangers again plays a part as Orvie explores it to discover the secrets it holds.

Book 1: The Orvie Mystery Series - The story takes place in the present. Orvie (short for Orville), one of the two main characters, is twelve years old, of course he had been born just a few years after the end of the Civil War. How could that be? (One way to find out ) He and his friend Ben discover a criminal plot among the leaders of the county and work to bring them to justice. They face extreme danger and experience excitement and terror, fun and laughter, and express their confusion at some of the mysteries of changing from boys to adolescents. They find themselves riding out a severe tornado in a tree house, and being chased through a dark woods at night by a dozen bad guys who have orders to see that they never return. There are a couple of girls as well. And, oh yes, Orvie has the power to sense if people are telling the truth or lying about things in their past - hence the book's title.

Book Four: 10 to 15 year old readers. Kidnapped: Johnny's Aunt Bea and the banker's wife are kidnapped for a large ransom during the week in early spring when Abbot comes to visit. Johnny, Jerry and Abbot take the lead in solving the mysteries of who is behind the abduction and where they are being held. Johnny refuses to pay the ransom so they have to find ways of pushing back deadlines to give them more time. They encounter problems with an old man and a rifle, an old mine that is prone to collapsing, and a long abandoned mill. There is action, mystery, excitement, and the developing friendship among the three boys who call themselves the tres amigos inteligente (the three smart friends).

Book Three: 10 to 14 year olds. The books are best read in order since the story continues.] Jericho and Red Eagle encounter the 'ghost' of a Pirate who, according to the lore, hid his considerable treasure, just north of Red Bend some 55 years before. They work to find the treasure, which was spread out over 12 hiding places. They get captured several times (they are a nosey pair of 12 year olds). Cal spends time with them as they try to avoid the insane great, great grandson of the old pirate, the Golden Dutchman. There is lot of excitement and many fascinating discussions about things important to young people their ages.

THE BOYS OF FREEDOM ISLAND: For 10 to 14 year old readers] During the early 1870's, recently orphaned brothers, 12 and 13, are pursued by the authorities when the older one escapes from a cruel apprentice master. They make their way south to the coast of North Carolina where they take up the cause of recently freed slaves who they find are being kidnapped and sold in the markets of the Caribbean Islands. They find safety and freedom on a tiny, isolated, uninhabited island in one of the coastal sounds. They are joined by the son of one of the captured men, and the three of them work together to find and free him. There is excitement at every turn as they must elude both the authorities and fight back against the wicked slavers who are bent on "sendin' thar scrawny hides ta the bottom a the sea".

Chip, an upbeat, 121/2 year old runaway, befriends an interesting assortment of unhappy residents in a rural retirement home. Three crises confront them: should they contact the authorities about the homeless, unsupervised child; how can they handle the imminent foreclosure on the home; and Chip going missing in the midst of a terrible blizzard. Some will read it as an upbeat winter holiday story. Others will see it as a study of relationships in which everybody grows and benefits. Either way it presents a heartwarming story of life's contrasts: youth with age, happiness with despair, tragedy with triumph.

Tommy Powers (an almost 13 year old orphan) has never really been what you would call a typical kid, but when he meets the ancient Sage who helps him discover his awesome super powers there can be no doubt about it. He learns that he belongs to a race of special beings known as the Calibrators - whose secret mission in life is to keep the World safe from evil forces. In Book One, of the four-book series of teen detective mysteries, the wise old sage (and his 13-year-old alter ego, Gus) help Tommy learn to control and use his magical abilities. In the process, he comes face to face with Antipathy, an evil being, also with super powers, who is intent on destroying mankind. With no help at hand, inexperienced Tommy has to try to hand the villain all by himself. Tommy has lots of adventures and numerous, interesting, discussions with his friends - also young teens - about growing up and what it really means to be happy and to live a good life. (There is even a little romance to interest the older readers, but not enough to spoil it for the younger ones.) This series represents a set of teen mystery books and action thriller books sure to offer good reads for nine to fourteen-year-old readers.

Three homeless boys (12, 13 and 14), distant relatives, but unknown to each other, inherit an abandoned Ghost Town - Clay Flats - in Colorado. It was left over from the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1854. They must live there, alone, for a year to claim it. Some bad guys apparently don't want that to happen. The story first tracks each of the boys from where they live to the 'Flats'. None have an easy journey. Once together they must find ways of accommodating three very different personalities as they learn to live together and search for the incredible secret of Clay Flats. Action, treasure and lots of good conversation.

For 9 to 14 year olds. Matt and Michael Snow are twins whose lives are filled with mysteries that just have to be solved. As thirteen year olds go they are really excellent detectives. They live at the edge of a small city. In BOOK TWO of this series, The Haunted House on Hawthorn Hill, the boys get caught up in searching for an old friend who they suspect has been kidnapped and is being held in the Hunted House. The story takes them on a thorough search of the eerie old mansion from the prison cell in the basement with the skeleton, through secret passageways and a secret room. There is a strange code they must crack, which, they believe will take them to a long lost treasure there in the house. The bad guys chase them every step of the way.

Three books for 10 to 15 year olds in one volume. In The Shadow Imp, a pair of twin boys find themselves investigating strange goings on in their city - a mysterious shadowy figure is seen lurking about and tries to make contact. Is it a wild creature? Is it dangerous? The Snow Twins will get it figured out. In Twix-Up, a chance meeting on the basketball court between two seventh graders in the all city tournament reveals they are identical in appearance - as if twins. What's up? They work together to solve the mystery. In Too Late?, a boy takes the family sailboat out into a raging storm and is ship wrecked on a small, out of the way, uninhabited tropical island. He has to survive on his wits using just what the island provides since there is nothing to be found of his boat. He has numerous dangerous encounters. Will he ever be rescued? A second, bonus novel - Twix Up - is included about two sets of identical twins that discover each other after having been mixed up a birth.

The first of a series of six western novels for young teens. Think, teen detective mysteries set in 1880 Kansas where the old west is still very much alive. In this first book in the series, Johnny, a 13-year-old orphan, and Doc, a frontier doctor, meet when the boy is severely wounded during a stagecoach robbery by ruthless bandits. They put their heads together with the Marshal to solve several, baffling mysteries involving stolen gold and threats against the local Newspaper editor who is out to expose a corrupt Rancher. From the action packed, guns blazing, opening paragraph to the final page, adventure, mystery, good guys and bad guys abound. The six main recurring characters in the series are introduced as is the positive value system upon which all of David Drake's stories are based. This represents one of several series of family life fiction published by the Family of Man Press.

The second book in the Doc and Johnny's Old West Mystery series. A carnival and rodeo run by Gypsies come to Red Bend and Johnny becomes friends with an orphan boy traveling with them. Johnny and Doc find they have two mysteries to solve: First, finding the boy's mother for him and trying to get them back together. Second, figuring out how a bank can be robbed when nobody enters the bank and yet all the money has somehow been taken. (Third, of course is who robbed the bank.) Johnny solves all three along with running a fake tonic salesman out of town, entering an important horse race with Diablo (his horse), and spending time with his special girlfriend.

In Book Two, a new problem arises for Tommy. Some body is out to kill him His new assailant, The Mutant Stranger, makes no attempt to hide himself or what he's about. He also has super powers (including lethal laser vision) and has pledged his allegiance to Antipathy, Tommy's evil adversary from the first book. How will Tommy be able to change such a single-minded bad guy into one of the good guys - or will he?

Two teenage boys - from opposite sides of the track - in the midst of a fist fight over a girl, become trapped together in a deep, slick-walled, dark cave. The only escape is through a tiny, seemingly unreachable hole in the roof a hundred feet above. As they work toward their common goals - survival and escape - they grow to understand and appreciate each other. The story demonstrates the growth of positive values, mutual understand and appreciation.

Ages 10 to 14: Twelve year old twin boys were separated at birth. One was raised as a Cherokee and the other a white boy. In 1870, Kansas, they discover each other while on separate journeys to Red Bend hoping to discover who they were. They soon accept that they are twin brothers, begin having dangerous and exciting adventures together, and find the blending of their backgrounds makes for a remarkable life together. (This story uses the same setting, ten years earlier, than the six book series, The Doc and Johnny Old West Mysteries.) In Book Two, Impostors, the boys find themselves up against a gang of men who are trying to stir up trouble between the residents of Kansas and the peaceful Indians who live there. They get caught in a waterfall, captured by the head bad guy, almost lose a good friend to a snake bite, and meet a new friend there age from the Arapaho Tribe who is trying to get medical help for his grandmother. Lots of conversations about prejudice and mixed race children. If they are lucky, they just may survive to star in book three of the series (smile ).

10 to 14 year old readers: (Best read in order) The boys decide it would be good if they visited the places where each of them grew up - The Cherokee Reservation in the Indian Territory, and south western Missouri where Jericho lived. After visiting The Happiness Place in south central Kansas, they accompany their friend, Rising Sun to his Arapaho Reservation where they have to save a youngster from a deep hole in the ground. The move on to Red Eagle's reservation where they meet up with horse thieves. As they move north across southern Missouri they manage a mine rescue, save boy who has fallen and is freezing in an ice house, and survive a terrible blizzard while transporting the first boy to live at the Happiness Place. Lots of close calls and excitement.

For 9 to 15 year olds: An older man, Jonas, built and lives on a 30 foot, two masted, sail boat on which he sails the Caribbean Sea. On one outing he discovers a recently orphaned stowaway - 11 year old Carlos. The boy has information about a treasure left to him by his Great Grandfather - an old-time pirate - stashed on one of the islands in the Bahamas. The boy has a secret code they have to decipher in order to locate it. The two of them accept the challenge and undertake the search; one problem - so does Fidel, an evil modern-day pirate who also came by the information. They struggle to stay just one step ahead of him as he chases them south, in and around the Bahama Islands.

Brothers, ages 13 and 17, find their father has been the leader of a mob. When he and their mother are killed by an opposing gang, the boys are forced to run away from the city to avoid the same end. Aliases, plus a fully stocked van had been prepared by their father in case of just such an emergency. They start out toward nowhere in the middle of the night and continue through a ten day adventure, eluding bad guys who are determined to do them in, federal agents who want them for questioning which would blow their cover, and two other, unidentified antagonists. Never having been close to each other, they have to grow to know and appreciate each other and define their new relationship. Lots of excitement, a smattering of romance, and lots of meaningful conversation. A novel for 12 to 18 in 62,000 words.