Illinois Authors

Thomson Gale, Detroit : 2007.

Gil Strickland is a high school teacher in Garden City, Montana. When one of his students crashes her car into a billboard and the dead girl's friend sneezes blood all over her cheerleading uniform, Gil begins to investigate. He uncovers evidence of a cocaine ring that preys on his students, but he's in over his head. Up against gun-toting bad guys, the only weapon he's ever wielded is a red pen. Can he save his students--and himself?

Severn House, Sutton : 2007.

The United States in crisis - In the face of increasing terrorist attacks on his own soil, the president of the United States declares martial law and sits for a third term. His country simmers in suspicion and fear. In Chicago, Jason Walker, half Lebanese but thoroughly American, is detained, interrogated and tortured. In exchange for his freedom, he must turn spy for Homeland Security, but it soon becomes impossible to tell who are the good guys.

Severn House, Sutton, Surrey : 2008.

After performing with a satanic band, recovering drug addict Seth Stevens has found a more spiritual outlet for his music with the Christian band, Salvation. When a lone Mormon missionary goes missing after crossing Terry Kinsman, a member of Salvation and a youth pastor in the Free Church of God's Slaves, Stevens begins to question his new life. He's gradually drawn into the church's covert political wing by Kinsman, who's determined to defeat a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate by any means necessary.

"Eleven-year-old Brian's summer turns out a lot less boring than expected when he encounters a huge, wacky house in the forest and befriends the eccentric family that lives there"--

Roaring Brook Press, New York : 2011.

Worrying about his father losing his job and the bully at school, fourth-grader Felix has terrifying dreams of the same monster-filled place every night until he meets someone there who looks and sounds strangely familiar.

"When the missing button for their new apartment building's thirteenth floor suddenly appears, identical twins Mal and Colm are pulled into an eerie adventure in an parallel dimension"--

Severn House Paperbacks, Sutton : ©2010.

Jack McEnroe is a construction worker with an unusual job: building a prison for terrorists. Like his neighbors in Red Rock, Wyoming, Jack isn't particularly concerned about politics. In a depressed rural economy, he's just grateful to have a job. Jack's boss, Dave Fetters, is grateful, too: he has a no-bid, cost-plus contract issued by the previous administration. It's his last chance to get rich, and he's making the most of it. But Dave is cooking the books, passing inflated costs along to defense contractor Halcyon Corporation - and Jack's ex-wife, Kyla, plans to blow the whistle. Suddenly, everyone Jack cares about, including his two young children, is in danger. As the first winter snows fall in the rugged mountains, Jack must navigate a razor-wire labyrinth to rescue those he loves. And the true price of liberty, he discovers, is paid not in dollars, but human life.

Twelve-year-old Dagmar and her family spend a summer living off-the-grid in a tiny home parked in the Northern California redwood forest, next door to an eccentric tech billionaire and his very unusual family.