The Bill Travis Mysteries

Bill Travis, an unmarried, unattached investment counselor rapidly approaching his fortieth birthday, conceives that he may not live the most exciting of lives, yet Julie Simmons, his first appointment that Monday, is deeply in trouble. She has taken a North Texas quarter horse racer and liquor baron named Archie Carpin - the last of a dynasty of criminals from the 1920's - for a ride and cleaned him out of a neat two million bucks. And thus begins the adventure of Bill's life.

When Death Row inmate Norman Howell drops a tidbit about how he and his father once helped the current Texas Governor get rid of competing Vietnamese fisherman with the use of high-powered explosives, Bill Travis has to decide whether to kick (and awaken) this particular sleeping dog, or whether to let it go. But then the Governor's men come calling for him, and all hell breaks loose.

What is the "blue bone" and what does a seventeenth-century French ship have to do with East Texas? When Bill Travis gets the word that his best friend has been murdered, he not only has to take a trip back to the town where he grew up, he has to go up against some old ghosts who were better left alone. What modern secrets lie hidden in the dark beneath the countryside where Bill grew up? And what darker, more ancient secret will he unearth?

Why would someone want to kill the curator of the Texas Rangers Museum? And why is Walt Cannon, a 30-year veteran Ranger, the chief suspect? And what could the murder possibly have to do with a very old arson case and satanic worship both north and south of the Texas-Mexico border? To answer these questions, Bill Travis needs the help of the unlikeliest of all sidekicks, including womanizing insurance agent Perry Reilly and Bill's own adopted daughter, Jessica.

Who killed Edgar Bristow, millionaire philanthropist and war hero? In a small Texas town where everyone knows everyone else, the list of suspects can be every person you've met. What dark secrets wait for the man who is unafraid to turn over any stone? And will the killer strike again before Bill can get to the truth?

When an old man covered in dirt walks into the country honky-tonk and says "the falling," right before dropping dead, Bill Travis has to penetrate the gathering dark cloak of secrecy surrounding his death. He has to get the truth before a team of nuclear regulators can rake the entire incident under the carpet.

Why is the 50-year-old secret of a missing military transport plane motivating some desperate men to begin setting deathtraps for Bill Travis, his client Holt Gatlin, and anyone else involved? To what lengths will they go to stop Bill for good? Does Holt Gatlin hold the cure to mankind's myriad diseases and possibly the answer to immortality itself, or is he instead the host for an ancient evil? To find the answer, Bill must have the help of the most unlikely sidekick of all.

What do a leather journal from a previous century, a loaded pistol, and an old safe hidden in an aging barn have to do with a court order that halts the completion of a Texas highway project? Why are snipers taking pot-shots at Lief Prescott, the highway construction manager, and Bill Travis, whom Lief has called in to help? To answer these questions, Bill Travis must get to the heart of a century-old conspiracy before he himself becomes a casualty in a secret war.

It all began with the untimely death of Sol Gunderson's prize billygoat, Bebe. Since then, someone is out to stop anyone from discovering the truth back of the animal's demise, particularly Bill Travis and his daughter Jessica. Was it toxic chemical waste dumped into Boggy Creek back of Gunderson's goat farm? Was it radioactive materials? Now Sol is running around shooting his mouth off like a loose cannon, while someone is drawing a bead on Bill and Jessica.

What are these shrieks in the night in the small, historic Texas Gulf Coast town of Anahuac, and what is the Ghost-killer? Worse yet, why is the last person to hear the shriek dead, his body now as devoid of moisture as a 3,000-year-old mummy? Sometimes doing a favor for a friend and client can wind Bill Travis hip-deep in trouble, and this time is no exception. To get to the heart of the matter, Bill must take his family along for the trip and make contact with Wolf Dillard, a self-styled Sasquatch hunter who has a story to tell that is beyond belief.