David Drake

In Book Six of the series, Orvie finds himself in the Ozark Mountains helping a new friend - Joey - solve a mystery involving the haunting of Joey's big old house by a long departed relative who wants Joey and his mother to leave. The ghost - Gallagher - appears at various places in the house and on the lawn. It eventually becomes destructive and kidnaps the boys. The mystery is much more than it seems and they work to solve it and save the house from being burned to the ground. They find that a 'ghost' may sometimes not be a ghost. Even the FBI becomes involved.

Book Three: Doc and Johnny's Old West Mysteries. Johnny uncovers a mystery involving the disappearance of a Pony Express rider some twenty years before. He smells foul play and investigates with his new 15 year old friend, Jericho. He helped nurse Jerry back to health after he had been attacked and badly hurt by a coyote while handling the horses on a cattle drive. They explore one of the original Pony Express Station Buildings, spend a night in a cave to escape a dangerous blizzard, find the skeleton of the young rider, and eventually put the clues together and bring to justice the outlaws who did harm to the boy. Johnny is held captive by the worst of the bad guys and has to use his quick thinking to try to handle the life threatening situation. There is, excitement, mystery, and a really great growing friendship between two very different yet very similar boys. Johnny writes an exciting Pony Express story.

10 to 14 year old readers: (Best read in order) In Book Four the twelve year olds from 1870 Kansas - Jericho and Red Eagle - take a horseback trip to look at land on which to build their first home for orphaned children. They reunite with the Arapaho boy, Rising Sun (Book Two), and along the way encounter gold thieves, kidnappers, a lost young boy whose parents have been taken by bad guys, a kid with a broken leg who is trapped inside a cave, cattle rustlers, a tornado, a man sucked into quicksand, and a woman from back east whose life is threatened by her evil brother. Once again the boy's quick wits and exceptional skill with bows and arrows save the day. It makes for an exciting 125 pages.

BOOK TWO: The Orvie Mystery Series - The book features forever twelve year old Orvie, the boy who could see into the past. In this outing he is tramping the meadows and forests of northwest Minnesota, revisiting the area in which he had grown up 125 years before. He meets a set of identical twin boys and together they work to solve a mystery in which a gang of thieves are stealing trees from their father's pine forest and selling them as logs for a huge profit. The boys have lots of fun together, share great danger, and in the end escape by the skin of their teeth.

Kidd, almost thirteen, and his adoptive father, who everyone calls Gramps, a recently retired teacher, are pursued cross-country by a wealthy scoundrel named Nivins, who falsely claims Kidd as his biological grandson and has vowed to kidnap him if necessary. The pair travels from one small town to another in Walooma Watooka, their comfortable, big, remodeled, blue school bus. At every stop they find people in need of their assistance and gladly provide it. Kidd begins learning about the romantic side of life and Gramps adjusts to suddenly having a young man, rather than a little boy at his side.

Unique among twin boy novels, here, twelve-year-old twin boys were separated at birth, one being raised as a Cherokee and the other as a white boy. In 1870, Kansas, these young teens discover each other while on separate journeys to Red Bend, hoping to discover who they are. Because of their uncanny resemblance, they soon accept that they are identical twins, begin having dangerous and exciting adventures together, and find the blending of their backgrounds makes for a remarkable life together. Jericho, the boy raised as white, comes to understand and appreciate Native Americans, and Red Eagle, learns new and important things about the White Man, as he calls them. This is the first in a five book, action packed, old west adventure series chuck full of 'good reads' for the ten to fourteen-year-old reader. (This series uses the same setting and some of the same adult characters, ten years earlier, as found in the five-book series, The Doc and Johnny Old West Mysteries.)

Kevin Kress isn't a nerd, but can talk tech with the best of them. Kevin isn't a jock but holds his own in a footrace. Kevin isn't Mr. Popularity yet everyone likes him. What Kevin is, is a top notch teen detective. He and his friend, Anna, take on all challenges. In this book, Kevin relates in the first person his first 6 big cases. There are ghosts that have the kids in a panic, a robbery planned to take down the local bank, a suspicious stranger comes to town some think is there for no good, a picture of a young girl starts a major search for answers about one of his old friends, a series of code messages like spies use arrive in his mailbox, and a very old piece of jewelry holds fascinating secrets from the World War II past. Although Kevin is not always in danger, it happens often enough that his parents really don't want to know what he's doing.

Del is fifteen and hates his name, well quite honestly, Del hates most everything about himself and most everybody else. He happens onto an old man (a writer) in a park who, in contrast, really likes himself and most everybody else. They talk, they share their lives, they grow, they write a book together. This is a book of wonder-filled conversations about how to build a good, successful, and helpful life. It is about finding hope and the strength and ability to make personal changes. It is a book about discovering who and what a young person wants to become and learning how to navigate a path that will lead him or her in that direction. The story is based on a real experience.

One dark, cold, November night, twelve-year old Zach is dumped, kicking and screaming, into the county orphanage. With his mother suddenly gone, he begins testing a relationship with the wise, old, white-bearded handyman. Rocky at first, it develops into a loving friendship. Zach systematically undermines the attempts to place him into foster and adoptive homes. A final crisis when his old friend is seriously injured near Christmas, helps the boy set his life straight. The story is fun, touching, and rewarding reading for all ages.

Lieutenant Daniel Leary of the Republic of Cinnabar Navy commands the corvette Princess Cecile with the brilliant Signals Officer Adele Mundy at his side. But when a diplomatic mission to the far-flung planet Strymon obtains an unwanted passenger, the Princess Cecile is catapulted into a brutal world of political sabotage. With assassins, pirates and traitors on every side, Daniel, Adele and their crack crew face the strains of a voyage never before attempted. And if they succeed, they must confront an enemy who can blow an entire fleet to smithereens. In this swashbuckling adventure, death is always an option. But for Lieutenant Daniel Leary, defeat is not.

Theirs is a friendship forged in hell... Daniel Leary is a lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy with no money and no prospects since he quarrelled with his ruthless, politically influential father. Adele Mundy is a scholar with no money and prospects since her family was massacred for conspiring against the Cinnabar government. Kostroma is a wealthy planet that depends on diplomacy to stay independent in a galaxy whose two great powers, Cinnabar and Alliance, battle for supremacy. In a few hours, diplomacy is going to fail Kostroma. Daniel, Adele, and the scratch crew they gather aren't much to stand in the way of a powerful invasion fleet; but, just possibly, they're enough. They have nothing on their side but each other-and heaven help whatever tries to stand in their way...

Captain Daniel Leary and cybrarian spy Adele Mundy think they've earned the quiet life. But when there is a rebellion in a distant, but politically critical, star system, high officials are determined to get the lifelong friends involved. They claim that only Leary and Mundy can prevent a war between the Republic of Cinnabar and its great rival, the Alliance of Free Stars. The conflict is political, but at the sharp end it means blazing warfare and cold-blooded murder. The odds in ships and guns are badly in the enemy's favour. Daniel, Adele, and the crew of the Princess Cecile will do everything humanly possible, but that may not be enough. And even if they succeed in battle, they can't be sure whether their employers really wanted them to win-or whether they even want them alive...

They were Roman soldiers--and they were still alive because there were no better killers in the galaxy. The Galactics need fighters who could win battles without the aid of technology. That's why, when Rome's legions suffered disaster at Carrhae, secretive alien traders were waiting to buy them on the Persian slave market. Now, virtually immortal, the Romans fight strange enemies on stranger worlds; and though they win every battle, the spoils of victory never include freedom. If the legionaries are ever to return to Earth, it must be through the beam weapons and force screens of their ruthless alien owners. But no matter the odds, 2,000 years is a long time; the Romans are coming home. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Paris at War chronicles the lives of ordinary Parisians during World War II, from September 1939 when France went to war with Nazi Germany to liberation in August 1944. Readers will relive the fearful exodus from the city as the German army neared the capital, the relief and disgust felt when the armistice was signed, and the hardships and deprivations under Occupation. David Drake contrasts the plight of working-class Parisians with the comparative comfort of the rich, exposes the activities of collaborationists, and traces the growth of the Resistance from producing leaflets to gunning down German soldiers. He details the intrigues and brutality of the occupying forces, and life in the notorious transit camp at nearby Drancy, along with three other less well known Jewish work camps within the city. The book gains its vitality from the diaries and reminiscences of people who endured these tumultuous years. Drake’s cast of characters comes from all walks of life and represents a diversity of political views and social attitudes. We hear from a retired schoolteacher, a celebrated economist, a Catholic teenager who wears a yellow star in solidarity with Parisian Jews, as well as Resistance fighters, collaborators, and many other witnesses. Drake enriches his account with details from police records, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and newsreels. From his chronology emerge the broad rhythms and shifting moods of the city. Above all, he explores the contingent lives of the people of Paris, who, unlike us, co­uld not know how the story would end.

The Empire of Man has fallen and a new Dark Age is upon the stars. With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism. Contains Books #5 and #6 (The Sword and The Chosen) in David Drake and S. M. Stirling's best selling General series.

David Drake’s legendary Raj Whitehall series, stunningly reborn! Humanity settled the stars, only to fall into a catastrophic collapse. On one planet, a single artificial intelligence, a computer program known as Center, found a military genius of grit and daring in Raj Whitehall, and the Galactic Republic rose again. But many dark planets remain — planets such as Duisenberg. Here, a single river cuts through a vast continental desert and a culture not unlike that of New Kingdom Egypt has developed. But, when a capsule containing the forbidden metal, plastic, and circuit boards that Zentrum hates falls from the sky — circuits with secretly stowed away, uploaded versions of Raj and Center — everything changes! What Raj and Center need now is a hero to break the Land’s stasis and lead Duisberg back from the galactic dark ages. Enter Abel Dashian. The son of a local military commander, he is a brilliant and courageous young man who has lost his mother to a simple bacterial infection. He is a young man who will dare anything to avenge his mother’s death and bring about change. He is the Heretic.

When the Fleet is challenged by an alien armada from the other side of the galaxy, the Fleet constructs the Stephen Hawking, an enormous mobile base for thousands of soldiers and warships... and the overstressed crew prepares for a direct assault by a deadly insectoid race. But the pressures of combat and close quarters have taken their toll, threatening to turn the crew to the enemy's prime advantage.