Historical Mysteries America

The American Colonies, 1765. As the Stamp Act dissent marks the first organized resistance to English rule, someone is kidnapping and killing members of the Iroquois Nation. Asked by an elder to investigate, Scottish exile Duncan McCallum soon uncovers a network of secret runners supporting the nascent “committees of correspondence", engaged in the political dissent fomenting across colonial borders. But as Duncan follows the trail further, it leads to his capture.

From the end of the 18th century, Americans traveled west to find new homes and new lands. They brought with them the magics of plain people. It is from these roots of the American dream that award-winning writer Orson Scott Card has crafted what the Charlotte Observer called "a uniquely American fantasy." Using the lore and the folk magic of the men and women who settled a continent, and the beliefs of the tribes who were here before them, Card has created an alternate frontier America.

Why would a collector of ancient American artifacts hand over his prized pieces to a historian and then shoot himself in the head? And why does an ancient Templar scroll in his possession refer to Jesus as "The Thief on the Cross"? The answers place historian Cameron Thorne at the dangerous intersection of secret American history and modern geopolitical intrigue.

Morton Farrier, the esteemed English forensic genealogist, had cleared a space in his busy schedule to track down his own elusive father finally. But he is then presented with a case that challenges his research skills in his quest to find the killer of a woman murdered more than 180 years ago. Thoughts of his own family history are quickly and violently pushed to one side as Morton rushes to complete his investigation before other sinister elements succeed in derailing the case.

Greatest Mystery of the Southwest USAPerhaps the most fascinating chapter in Southwest history is the tale of the mysterious, “vanished” Anasazi Indians. Their tremendous achievements can be found in many places, including the spectacular cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. But the crest of the Anasazi wave was in Chaco Canyon, a shallow, windswept wash in northwest New Mexico. Here, 1,000 years ago, strange and unexplained events unfolded, events which continue to intrigue scientists and visitors today. In this book, you'll delve into the mystery: Why choose inhospitable Chaco...

For over 300 years the conquistadors used El Camino Real, (The Royal Road). Bringing their plundered Inca gold across the Isthmus of Panama, from the Pacific to the Caribbean. October 1641, seven hundred kilograms of gold vanished from the trail without trace. In a captivating blend of history and suspense, a widower's discovery sparks a modern-day treasure hunt. The lure of stolen Inca gold, and the challenge to find it, soon became so much more than they had bargained for. After almost 400 years, former history professor Alex Poynter stumbles across a small clue, soon he is joined by four...

Historians Cameron Thorne and Amanda Gunn stumble upon a mysterious spiral necklace and a 12,000-year-old human skull, sparking their search for Atlantis and its true legacy. But are modern-day Knights Templar and a cabal of goddess worshipers conspiring against them? Only after a whirlwind of international travel and a violent encounter with a shadowy paramilitary group do the mysteries of Atlantis finally reveal themselves.

The fifth in Eliot Pattison's Bone Rattler series, Savage Liberty - a fast-paced mystery built around historical figures and set against the haunting backdrop of dying woodland tribes - follows exiled Scotsman Duncan McCallum on a thrilling journey down the road to revolution. When a ship arriving from London explodes in Boston Harbor, both the peace of the colonial city and Duncan McCallum's life are shattered.

Clint Belmet's parents were killed in a Comanche raid when he was young, but that hasn't stopped him from taking a job leading freight caravans on the old Santa Fe Trail, from Saint Louis, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico - a route that goes right through Comanche territory. Here is the raw, primitive West of the early pioneers, great caravans of freighters rumbling across the deadly prairies, risking attack by Comanche.

They are just about as bad and evil as outlaw gangs come. But in the end, they finally go straight.

Of all the colorful characters that inhabited the West during the 19th century, the most famous of them all is Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), who has long been regarded as the embodiment of the Wild West. Considered the "toughest and deadliest gunman of his day", Earp symbolized the swagger, the heroism, and even the lawlessness of the West.

Cameron Thorne and his fiancee Amanda Spencer don't for a second believe the Ark of the Covenant is hidden in a cave in the Arizona desert. But when a militant survivalist leads them to a radioactive replica of the Ark, filled with a mysterious white powder, they begin to wonder if legends of Templar Knights visiting the American Southwest on a secret mission might be true. What is this strange white powder? And is it the key to understanding the true power of both Moses and the sacred Ark of the Covenant?

From one of the bestselling western novelists of all time, comes another classic story. Templeton Lambeth had so desperately wanted a son - an heir to ride by his side through the vast, wild ranges just west of the Pecos River. But to his disappointment, his wife bore a girl. His hopes crushed and in denial, he decides to raise his daughter as if she were a boy. In honor of Lambeth's more successful brother, they named her: Terrill.

After marrying against her father's wishes, Maggie Duncan plans to flee to America with her husband, Ian. But Ian is accused of murder, and honor requires him to stay in Scotland to face the charges. Alone, Maggie sets up a life for them in the New World, while Ian faces the horrors of prison. Thousands of miles apart, the two must learn to trust in God's greater will to reunite them.

The Mariposa Mineby Harper Stanwick, Sr. is a romantic mystery set in New York and the remote corners of South America during the 1920s. Arnold returns to New York after years of constructing railways in the most remote parts of the world. The bustling city, filled with familiar faces and old haunts, is a stark contrast to his adventurous past. As he reconnects with his cousin Michelle, he is unexpectedly captivated by a mysterious woman he meets at an opera—Lisa Howe, a beauty adorned with silver butterflies. Lisa’s family’s fortunes have crumbled, yet she maintains an air of grace ...

Despite what seems like the unending war between French and British, Scottish exile Duncan McCallum has begun to settle into a new life on the fringes of colonial America, traveling the woodlands with his companion Conawago, even joining the old Indian on his quest to find the last surviving members of his tribe. But the joy they feel on reaching the little settlement of Christian Indians is shattered when they find its residents ritually murdered. As terrible as the deaths may be, Conawago perceives something even darker and more alarming.

Andy Adams (1859-1935) was born to pioneer parents in Indiana, worked in Texas for a decade driving cattle, and settled in Colorado Springs, where he penned his cowboy narratives. The Log of a Cowboy chronicles a five-month drive of three thousand head of cattle from Brownsville, Texas, to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana. This classical work of fiction provides fascinating insights of everyday life on the Great Western Cattle Trail with a team of 12 cowhands, a cook, a horse wrangler and a foreman.

When Duncan McCallum is asked by Benjamin Franklin to retrieve an astonishing cache of fossils from the Kentucky wilderness, his excitement as a naturalist blinds him to his treacherous path. But as murderers stalk him Duncan discovers that the fossils of this American incognitum are not nearly as mysterious as the political intrigue driving his mission. The Sons of Liberty insist, without explaining why, that the only way to keep the king from pursuing a bloody war with America is for Duncan to secretly deliver the fossils to Franklin in London.

Just in time for Sherlock Holmes, the major motion picture starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law: the world’s greatest fictional detective and his famous sidekick Dr. Watson are on their first trip across the Atlantic as they solve crimes all over 19th-century America - from the bustling neighborhoods of New York, Boston, and D.C. to fog-shrouded San Francisco. The world’s best-loved British sleuth faces some of the most cunning criminals America has to offer and meets America’s most famous figures.

In 1949, Aloysius Archer arrives in the dusty Southern town of Poca City. He has nothing but a handful of dollars, the clothes he’s wearing and an appointment with his new parole officer. After his wartime experiences in Italy and a prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, Archer is looking for a fresh start and a peaceful life. On his first night of freedom, Archer meets local business tycoon Hank Pittleman, who promises Archer handsome compensation to work as his debt collector.