The Daniel Stories Series

Daniel grew up in a typical working family as they struggled to come to terms with post-war austerity. Lauren came from more financially secure middle-income comfort. They lived their childhood less than fourteen miles apart and did in fact meet at a wedding as children. Daniel had his first romantic crush on the tall pretty girl with the enormity of golden blond hair. He knelt on his bed and playacted for his mother how some day he would marry her. She laughed and thought him charming. They grew into that inexplicable breed – independent, non-conforming, parent vexing loners. They rejected the tribal pressures and fought the bullying they were subjected to. Both tried to escape by joining the Royal Navy – he to fly and she to put her thwarted Olympian athletic prowess to use as an instructor. Neither got that far as their particular skills were noted and they got diverted into a new top-secret covert intelligence-gathering unit. When Daniel met Lauren again he had long forgotten the nameless blond subject of his boyish crush. They were teamed up as they began a double life of danger and duplicity, driven by the same passion to fight the bullies. They found release in each other’s arms as they coped with conflict. Daniel is drawn into a secret war and they think he is their pawn but Daniel and his partner, Lauren ,are cut from different cloth. These are individuals driven not by tribal hate but implacable moral certainty. They do not play the game but seek to dismantle it from the inside. Their struggle is simple and clear, until Bonny comes into their lives. One of the innocent that could so easily become another statistic – another casualty – collateral damage. They may save her or she may offer them salvation, but, either way, Daniel’s conflict will be altered forever by the bountiful force of nature that is Bonny McAdam. Out of something rankly foul, a thing of unique and loving beauty is created. This novel deals with adult themes and is aimed at mature open-minded men and women who enjoy reading of thrills and romance set amid meaningful eye-opening historical realism.

Lt. Cmd. Daniel Dawes RN, Lt Lauren Greer RN and their lover Bonny McAdam, have recently escaped conflict in their homeland. Bonny and Daniel have created an idyllic love nest in a cottage on the banks of the River Dart. The three are about to be drawn into a far away war and an adventure that will challenge and change their lives forever. The year is 1982. In Argentina the Military Junta, led by General Galtieri, is losing its grip and fears it will overthrown by a popular uprising. A distraction is needed to take the people’s eyes off the border war with Chile and the violent repression by the state security police. The long-standing dispute over ownership of a small group of islands in the South Atlantic offers such a distraction. In Britain the Conservative government of Mrs Thatcher is also in political trouble. Her radical policies have made her the most hated Prime Minister on record. John Nott, the Minister of Defence, announces a huge cut in defence spending. The fundraising is aimed at offering the electorate a big tax cut bribe before the next election. The Royal Navy is the prime target and most of its large ships are to be sold off. The two aircraft carriers, HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible will be passed to their new owners by December 1982, along with landing ships, support vessels and many smaller warships. The Royal Navy is to be reduced to inshore defence and fisheries protection. This is the most radical defence cut ever attempted by a British Government. These announcements and the notice that HMS Endurance is to be recalled from her South Atlantic Falklands base, do not go unnoticed in Argentina. Britain will no longer have the capability to defend the Falklands and Argentina will have the glory of retaking the Malvinas. Plans are made to invade in December 1982. However a misunderstood piece of intelligence deceives the Argentinians. A movement order to a Royal Navy atomic submarine in the Mediterranean is understood to be redeployment to the South Atlantic. They panic and bring forward invasion plans. They must invade now at the end of March. They calculate that Britain won’t resist. Are not all the signs clear? They are disbanding their once mighty navy and HMS Endurance is gone. Galtieri says: ‘We must strike now for the glory of the motherland.’ He hopes to keep power a little longer. This novel deals with adult themes and is aimed at mature open-minded men and women who enjoy reading of thrills and romance set amid meaningful eye-opening historical realism.

A gentle bawdy romance with a few thrilling twists. Daniel Dawes has come back from the war in the Falklands with a broken back and a burden of guilt for the stress he has caused Bonny and Lauren. He must mend his mind as well as his body for he has new responsibilities. He is going to be a father. This healing will be aided by the love of Bonny and Lauren and by the attention of his physiotherapist Kris. The healing will flow to Kris, who nurses a deep secret. Daniel’s life will be complicated by new attachments and responsibilities. The Dawes’ past returns to haunt them. Old conspiracies, fear of discovery and a need for revenge create danger that they must defeat or run from, forever living in fear. What motivates the natural warrior? What drives him or her to strive, fight and risk all? Why do some resist the tribal forces of conformity and compliance? This is the story of three who resist. They are driven by belief and moral certainties that are individual and non-conformist. The engine that drives them is passion. Passion for each other, powerful, hedonistic sexuality, hunger for life, moral justice and personal freedom. This novel deals with adult themes and is aimed at mature open-minded men and women who enjoy reading of thrills and erotic romance set amid meaningful eye opening historical realism

Lauren was safer now and Bonny didn’t worry for her the way she now worried about Daniel. Daniel had never found his escape. He was still trapped by his overwhelming sense of responsibility and his inability to be as self-centred and single-minded as Lauren. He took on the responsibility for all he cared for and sacrificed his own desire for peace of mind and health of body. He still suffered that dreadful burden of guilt laid on his life so thickly by his monster of a mother. He tried to bend and not break and he tried to understand and mend himself. To protect his family from his pain and confusions but it wasn’t working. Daniel had been near death after being shot getting his children back from their kidnapping ordeal. He stood on the edge of the abyss and killed many as he came close to the madness that is revenge. He’d crossed that line briefly and now he was afraid and unsure of his motivation. That vile act perpetrated on his children had disturbed his previously certain moral compass so now he doubted why he pursued these monsters. Daniel had stared death down and refused to die but he hadn’t yet healed and he was embarking on some huge and dreadful thing. Compelled to end the fear and tackle the threat head on. He would not run or hide from his fear but would do what he’d always done - he would strip it bare and face it. Let it rip at him and when he’d found its foul heart, he’d kill it, no matter what the risk, no matter how much damage he suffered - he’d find its dark heart and end it.

When you spend years living a double life, hiding your true nature and passions from the world, the stress can become unbearable. When revealing those truths may cost you, and those you love, life itself, those stresses become magnified to levels even the most imaginative people can scarce comprehend. Daniel and Lauren, and to lesser degree Bonny, have been living that life for nearly a decade. Daniel and Lauren have been undercover intelligence officers working in the murky world of paramilitary violence. Several attempts have been made on their lives and many have died in those attempts. Daniel and Lauren withdraw, exhausted and spent. They try to re-build. Those they threatened have not forgotten them. The knowledge they fear they carry hangs over the conspirators in Belfast and London like the sword of Damocles. They think Daniel Dawes wields that sword. He must die to keep their secrets safe and hidden. As Daniel, Lauren and Bonny take a holiday, a plot to silence Daniel is unfolding. He will be tested like never before. When it’s over, his grip on his sanity and his life will hang in the balance.

Daniel’s unconventional family pyramid is more complex than ever before. The four children are now well into their teens so their side is becoming more volatile. Lauren is comfortable and content in her role as the central point and Bonny is as upbeat and bubbling with sexual energy as ever. Daniel is struggling with the lack of drama in his work and with the ongoing after effects of his physical trauma. During this working holiday with the family in Rome, extreme drama will come at the Dawes from an entirely unforeseen source.

Daniel’s trial takes many forms. There is the legal trial he must face knowing if he reveals the truth behind the conspiracies he’s been fighting, those conspirators and others unseen will attack his family and friends. There will be the trial of isolation and fighting the demons within that are perhaps the greatest threat. The loved ones he has left behind, Lauren, Bonny and their four children also face their own personal trials. The warrior Lauren must unravel the conspiracy to try to free Daniel and protect the family without his guiding hand to calm her vengeful rage. Bonny must be mother, shaman and guide to her now adult family and face trials without the rock of her man, Daniel. She begins to crumble but the love of friends new and old and the wisdom of an ancient Cree shaman will bring her back to the centre of the loving pyramid she created. She built a new thing when she met Lauren and Daniel so that with the children they created a family pyramid that withstood the trials of life. As their sphere of influence grows, new pyramids are made - and on into the infinity of possibilities that are life’s trial.