Caribbean Adventure

Jesse McDermitt has done it. He has escaped the ugliness so pervasive in modern society, and along with his family and a few close friends, they have set out aboard a boat he designed himself for living long periods totally off the grid. The first couple of months are peaceful, uneventful, and by today's standards, quite boring. But the crew of Taranis have the sun, sea, and quiet coves to explore, where there aren't even any footprints in the sand. Until they reach their destination.

The I Escaped Series: The World's Favorite Escapes. Embark on an unforgettable journey back to the thrilling Golden Age of Piracy. The year is 1690, and 15-year-old Jon is a young sailor aboard a merchant ship. Disaster strikes when they're attacked and boarded by pirates, led by the infamous Captain Morgan. Taken captive Jon must make a choice: join the swashbuckling crew or be left stranded on a deserted island. Jon is no seasoned buccaneer. He's just an honest young sailor from the American colonies. With his worried parents back home, he must find a way to survive and escape. Facing a ...

Jesse McDermitt is finally ready to retire. But life has other plans. While diving on a remote reef deep in the backcountry of the Florida Keys with his wife, son and two friends, he discovers of all things, a car. Not just any car, but a 1928 Duesenberg Model J, the most powerful and stylish automobile of its time. The car was once owned by a Saudi prince who was attempting to develop Johnston Key in the heart of Turkey Basin before Henry Flagler even finished the rail line to Key West. But that’s not all Jesse discovers and what he finds next will make him the target of one of his own.

Jesse McDermitt is back, just as he promised. This time, he is thrust into the heart of the Florida Panhandle's Tate's Hell State Forest, where the tranquil surroundings belie a dangerous secret—a network of clandestine meth labs hidden against the backdrop of the Forgotten Coast’s natural beauty. Jesse, a retired Marine turned charter boat captain, has brought his family to Apalachicola “for the oysters.” But being who he is, the leisurely cruise soon spins into a gripping quest to unravel the truth behind the illicit operations threatening the region.

Unbeknownst to Jesse, an environmentally conscious woman from his past has stumbled onto a drug manufacturing cartel in Virginia while working on a pollution mitigation problem. The cartel responds by sending someone to kill people Jesse cares for. A contract killer stalks the woman all the way to Miami, leaving bodies in his wake. With the help of an old flame in the FBI, Jesse goes to the snow-covered Appalachians to get to the root of the trouble: an unscrupulous prosecutor and dirty sheriff, who are producing LSD on an unbelievable scale.

Good intentions sometimes lead to bad outcomes. On a humanitarian trip to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, the author was attacked and injured in a protest. After more than a decade of unpleasant thoughts and the occasional nightmare about the misadventure, a new story has been created out of the memory of the violence the author endured. In Haiti Shanghai, a fascinating and shadowy small group of heroic Hattians keep the island nation from collapsing under the weight of it's own tragedies and corruption. The author gets a front-row seat, and becomes pivotal to the groups efforts. Come re-...

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM—AN ISLAND'S FATE HANGS IN THE BALANCE In the explosive tenth chapter of the Will Harper Mystery Series, the tranquil retreat of Florida sleuth Will Harper and his love Luna turns into a tempest's epicenter when fugitives Birdie and Rufus unwittingly enter the eye of the storm. As Hurricane Ian wreaks havoc on Sanibel Island, Harper must navigate treacherous waters to rescue the stranded. For fans of John D. MacDonald and aficionados of crime mysteries by Dawn McKenna and Wayne Stinnett, Sanibel Wind is a seafaring odyssey where Harper races against time, ...

Things in the Middle Florida Keys aren’t as idyllic as they seem. If one looks closely, there’s a layer of dirt just below the surface. The butt-ugly kind of dirt that’s hard to get off. Things move slowly in the Keys—locals call it island time—but there are some for whom it seems that time is at a standstill; whose clocks revolve only around the tides, fish migrations, and the rising and setting of the sun and moon. Jesse McDermitt remembers the Keys the way he’d first found them as a young man.

On a kayak outing with friends, Jesse's daughter finds and rescues a manatee suffering from respiratory problems. The red tide has returned, and fish are dying by the thousands, along with dolphins, manatees, and sea birds. The algal bloom is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but this time it's much worse. Theories abound; it's something left over from the previous spring's coronavirus outbreak, it's caused by pollution, someone is intentionally creating a super-algae....But there's something far more sinister at work, and it's up to Jesse to find out what it is and put a stop to it.

Red Jewel is a gripping narrative that explores the complexities of human relationships and the high-stakes world of professional sailing against the backdrop of the vast and unforgiving Central Pacific Ocean. At the heart of the story is an unlikely partnership between a seasoned British sailor and a young Canadian novice, whose inexperience and lack of sailing knowledge put them both at risk with dire consequences. As they navigate the challenges of open ocean sailing, they must confront their own limitations and try to work together against the harsh realities of the sea. Red Jewel is a ...

Jesse McDermitt discovers an environmental nightmare of deception and greed taking place in Central America. A cartel is branching into smuggling things other than drugs. And they’re doing it quite effectively. Having so many moving parts and numerous smuggling routes, can Jesse and the crew of Ambrosia, on a dive vacation in the Bay Islands of Honduras, be able to make a difference? Or will the beautiful reef surrounding the island of Utila be Ambrosia’s grave?

This second edition, new and improved, came out in 2019. (Also, this ebook is reflowable whereas the one for the 1st edition was not.) For anyone who dreams of sailing away, it remains a classic memoir of a 15,000-mile solo expedition with a tiny, hand-made boat. Bent on discovery, Ladd ranges from Montana to the pirate-infested coast of Panama and Colombia, across the Andes, down a 600-mile river by night to avoid guerrillas, and through the Caribbean. Robbed, capsized, arrested and befriended, he sails and rows through a tumult of uncharted adventures. The cast of characters: Dieter, mad ...

Things in the Middle Florida Keys aren’t as idyllic as they seem. If one looks closely, there’s a layer of dirt just below the surface. The butt-ugly kind of dirt that’s hard to get off. Things move slowly in the Keys—locals call it island time—but there are some for whom it seems that time is at a standstill; whose clocks revolve only around the tides, fish migrations, and the rising and setting of the sun and moon.

An adventurous billionaire on a mission... A former CIA agent finding her bearings... Treasures lost to time... Hired to protect her employer’s older brother, former CIA agent Raynelle Dryden gets too personal with him in a treasure hunt, and both inadvertently introduce the other to new enemies in this Christian romantic suspense. A dangerous quest… Billionaire treasure hunter Benjamin Glynn is on a quest to find pirate Blackbeard’s lost treasures. So are his competitors, who stop at nothing to win the race. Benjamin finds himself unable to proceed as obstacle after obstacle comes ...

Paradise isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Few people know this as well as Jesse McDermitt, retired Marine and former government operative. In the aftermath of an intense mission in coastal Mexico, Jesse wants nothing more than to get back to his boat; to just sail away and forget all about the firefight and his warrior past. Jesse is forced to don the warrior’s mask once again. This time to catch a ghoulish killer who is stalking the villages and jungles outside Belize City.

Human Trafficking, Police Corruption, and Vigilante Justice... When Hannah Gleason tried to snatch Liz Chirac's purse, Dani Berger knocked her flat. Ever since she was sold to human traffickers in St. Martin, Hannah's life had been a series of horrors. Starved, beaten, and abused, she thought her luck had changed when she escaped. Now she wasn't so sure. She was stealing money for food. Dani was threatening to call the police. Hannah panicked. She knew the police would return her to the traffickers. Feeling sympathy for the terrified girl, Liz insisted that they take her back to their yacht...

Ex-Marine Richard Drake treasures his laid-back life on St. Mark, smallest of the US Virgin Islands. To make ends meet, he works as a charter boat captain and provides security for a high-profile client. To nourish his soul, he spends lots of time with enchanting Sophie Cooper. Once, when she sought safe haven, Richard saved her life. Then she stole his heart. Now they fill each other’s lives, hand in hand by day and even closer during tropical nights. But Sophie has a problem. Her morning trek through the tranquil beauty of St. Mark’s rainforest turned horribly wrong when a knife-...

It's not about temptation — it's about survival. The last thing Julie Steffens needs after a season of research in the jungles of Central America is a gang of armed mercenaries after her for a crime she didn’t commit. And the last rescuer she wants is Seth Cooper, the sizzling vacation fling who disappeared from her bedside two months before. But right now, she needs a way out — and Seth’s sailboat is it. So what if the man kisses like a pirate just back in to port? It’s not about temptation; it’s about survival. Seth Cooper has traded the rat race for life in the slow lane — ...

In 1719, William Tonia is born during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. The shadow of violence that surrounded his birth hangs over him like darkening Atlantic Ocean storm clouds. It is across this angry sea that he must set his course in search of both how his mother met her demise and to find his father's identity. On the sea, he is recruited as a merchant seaman, smuggler, and pirate. He is drawn into the service of the Spanish King during the War of Jenkin's Ear to defend the Caribbean possession of Cartagena. His heroics during this battle earn him entrance into a social setting for ...

Sometimes, you have to get lost to find what you're looking for. When Carmela 'CJ' Jones's love life goes from "I do" to "I don't think so," she swaps wedding bells for seashells and heads to Cocoa Reef Resort for some soul-searching. But instead of finding inner peace, she finds Keston Kips—the infuriatingly handsome mixologist who seems to have a PhD in getting under her skin. Their tropical tango includes a series of hilarious mix-ups, leading them to an unexpected adventure on a deserted island. Stranded with nothing but their wits and a growing attraction they can't ignore, CJ and ...