Russell James | Severed Press

Unearthing Crocodopolis (Rick and Rose Sinclair Adventures Book 5)

severed_press_ — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:42:32 +0000

In 1938, Colin Farr walks into Rick and Rose Sinclair’s Savannah antique shop with an incredible proposition. He wants them to finance and join him in finding the lost Egyptian city of Crocodopolis. The three will then share the riches legend says are buried there.

Adventurous Rick is all in. He recruits their pilot friend Humphrey Custis to fly them to Egypt. Rose, however, thinks Colin’s story is too good to be true and this trip will be a disaster.

Rose’s misgivings prove correct. Colin’s story is filled with half-truths and duplicitous locals are out to rob them. Then, when Colin’s contact accidentally summons evil spirits, the search for Crocodopolis goes from merely dangerous to absolutely deadly.

Will Rick, Rose, and Humphrey survive unearthing Crocodopolis?

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Terror On Mount St. Helens

severed_press_ — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 08:16:36 +0000

Paleontologist Grant Coleman is on vacation at a lakeside resort near Mount St. Helens, Washington. All he wants to do is relax. But while he’s floating in an inner tube on the lake, the dam fails. He and others are swept away in the ensuing flood. He awakens on the riverbank somewhere downstream in the heart of a national forest on the slopes of Mount St. Helens.

He meets Ridley Montrose, a back-to-nature woman living off the land, as well as a group of fraternity brothers dumped from a party boat on the lake. They huddle by the river, awaiting rescue.

But that is no place to rest. The waters around Mount St. Helens harbor deadly fish. Murderous beasts, thought extinct for thousands of years, hunt the forest. Seismic activity shakes the earth. Death stalks the group at every turn.

Countless numbers have died on these slopes over the decades, and it will be a miracle if Grant and his party survive the terrors on Mount St. Helens.

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Passage Up The Mekong (Rick and Rose Sinclair Adventures Book 4)

severed_press_ — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:23:22 +0000

In 1938, Rick and Rose Sinclair run an antique shop. One of Rick’s shady friends offers him the deal of a lifetime on a large, beautiful hand that had been sculpted out of polished jade. The purchase drains their savings and incenses Rose, who is convinced this jade hand was stolen and that owning it will bring them nothing but trouble.

Rose is soon proved right. Thieves break into the shop, steal the hand, and send it off to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The Sinclairs will be broke if they don’t retrieve the jade hand. With their friend Humphrey, a former Great War flying ace, they head for Cambodia. They are soon enmeshed in a gangster’s plot to resurrect an evil Vedic goddess at an abandoned city along the Mekong River. Dangers abound as they fight off thugs, encounter a haunted rubber plantation, and realize the immense, supernatural power of the goddess known as Rudra the Destroyer.

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River Of Death (The Grant Coleman Adventures Book 8)

severed_press_ — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 01:54:24 +0000

Paleontologist Grant Coleman teaches at Robeson University, but has a nice side job writing creature feature fiction during his downtime. His success as an author gets him invited to be the guest of honor at a writers’ conference at an African safari lodge.

He arrives to find the conference cancelled. Lionel Van Rooyen has commandeered the entire lodge for his personal safari, a hunt travelling up what the locals call the River of Death. He’s leading a team of mercenary poachers to kill the mythical zuhwiri, a giant rhinoceros.

When Van Rooyen’s cryptid expert guide fails to show up, he forces Grant to take his place. The cross-river passage becomes a gauntlet of attacks by jungle animals, some of which should have been extinct for a few million years. Danger lurks around every bend, in every tree, and even beneath their feet.

Grant has survived some close calls before, but the odds are against him now. No one has ever returned from a passage up the River of Death.

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Search For The City Of Gold (Rick and Rose Sinclair Adventures Book 3)

severed_press_ — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 02:43:43 +0000

For centuries, stories had circulated of an Aztec city so rich that precious gems adorned the buildings and the streets were paved with gold. But like so many Aztec locations, this one had been abandoned and swallowed by the jungle. Since the time of the conquistadors, expeditions have set out to find it. None have ever returned.

At their antique shop in 1938, Rick and Rose Sinclair come across what may be a map to the lost City of Gold in an Aztec artifact. The adventurous husband implores his more level-headed wife that this is their opportunity to become rich. She sees it as a chance for a great historical discovery, and agrees. They and pilot pal Humphrey Custis set out for unexplored Mexico.

The three arrive in a jungle filled with perils. Deadly jaguars, killer spiders, and hostile locals all attack at every turn. Rick and Rose soon discover terrifying details about the lost city, including inhabitants that only walked the night and feasted on sacrifices of human blood. The dangers keep multiplying and the Sinclairs are in over their heads. Will they join the list of explorers who died in a search for the City of Gold?

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DESOLATION CANYON

severed_press_ — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 15:48:06 +0000

It seems like the perfect trip when paleontologist Grant Coleman joins a geology professor and an anthropologist to explore an unmapped canyon far out in the Utah desert. The sponsor’s team leader promises Grant he can take home all the fossils he finds. On the first day at camp, an explosion strands the entire team hundreds of feet down on the canyon floor. It is soon clear that the mining company sponsor has more nefarious plans than the benign research they promised. The going is about to get tough for the three professors. Then the situation gets worse. These humans aren’t the only ones in this canyon. Supposedly extinct dinosaur species still roam the canyon’s floor, and they aren’t about to let humans become the new apex predator. Can Grant’s dinosaur expertise and the other professors’ insights combine to save them from these monsters? If not, they are doomed, because there’s no rescue coming to Desolation Canyon.

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UNDER THE SKELETON FLAG

severed_press_ — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 09:21:51 +0000

It is 1718 and Doctor Baxter Whitcomb decides to leave his medical practice in London for the challenge and adventure of practicing in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But while crossing the ocean, his ship is boarded by pirates. And not just any pirates, these are commanded by the notorious Blackbeard, sailing under his trademark skeleton flag. Blackbeard kidnaps Baxter and presses him into service aboard his flagship. Baxter soon discovers the secret to Blackbeard’s success. A powerful witch is aboard, casting spells of dark magic that make the pirate invincible. The doctor’s voyage becomes a living hell. Storms, battles, the mercurial whims of Blackbeard, and the witch’s spells constantly threaten his life. He second guesses every action he takes, every word he speaks. Then the witch falls ill, and Blackbeard commands the doctor save her. But can he treat an illness brought on by her practicing the dark arts? If he can’t, Blackbeard has promised the witch won’t be the only one to die while sailing under the skeleton flag.

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VOYAGE TO BLACKBEARD’S ISLAND

severed_press_ — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 08:52:18 +0000

In 1718, the notorious pirate Blackbeard was captured and killed. But he left no trace of the immense riches he’d plundered during his years pillaging the high seas. In 1938, antique dealers Rick and Rose Sinclair discover what appears to be a map of an uncharted island sketched in Blackbeard’s hand. With the help of Virginia, a pirate expert, they deem the map authentic, and the most likely place for Blackbeard to have hidden his treasure. Along with their trusty pilot friend Humphrey, the three set out find the island. But an East Coast mobster is on their tail with his own designs on this trove. And if that isn’t enough danger, Blackbeard had used supernatural assistance setting up defenses around his treasure, and Rick and Rose will find that all of them are as potent as ever. Rick and Rose have survived some wild adventures, but nothing could prepare them for the terrors of a voyage to Blackbeard’s Island.

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ATOLL X

severed_press_ — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 09:00:09 +0000

Billionaire Parker Rothman is building a resort on a private island in the South Pacific. He’s uncovered marine fossils during construction and offers paleontologist Grant Coleman the opportunity to come catalog them. The offer includes all expenses paid, first-class meals and accommodations, and a healthy paycheck. Grant accepts what he thinks will be a working vacation. From the moment he arrives, things go awry. The resort isn’t finished, the food is canned, and Rothman is nowhere to be found. There’s also an adjacent forbidden atoll, supposedly set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. All the vacation disappears from Grant’s working vacation. The situation soon gets worse. A pirate attack strands Grant and a group of island residents on the prohibited atoll. The protected wildlife turns out to be a plethora of deadly prehistoric creatures on both land and sea. They are only the first of the atoll’s many dangerous secrets. With no rescue coming, will anyone survive setting foot on Atoll X?

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QUEST FOR THE QUEEN’S TEMPLE

severed_press_ — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 09:40:44 +0000

Three thousand years ago, the Queen of Sheba ruled an empire and had wealth beyond measure. Legends said that one day the Arabian desert rose up and swallowed the queen, her temple, and her fabulous treasure. It is 1938, and antiques dealers Rick and Rose Sinclair come across an old journal. It tells an explorer’s tale of sighting the queen’s lost temple, but his porters forcing him to turn back, terrified by myths of the temple’s protection by giant monsters and the queen’s avaricious ghost. The Sinclairs set out to find the temple, transported in a decrepit plane by their smuggler friend Humphrey. The moment they land, their plan goes awry. They are robbed, and worse, they discover they have competition searching for the lost temple. The Sinclairs will find that all the legends were true. The temple does exist. The treasure is still there. And it is all defended by giant creatures bent on slaughtering any who trespass. Will Rick’s cunning and Rose’s intellect be enough to survive the dangers of the temple of the queen?

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RAVENS OF YELLOWSTONE

severed_press_ — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 10:02:03 +0000

Local recluse Neil Bedey harbors a generations-deep hatred for Yellowstone National Park. His plan for revenge? To set free enormous killer ravens contained in the park’s interior, put thousands of visitors’ lives in jeopardy, and force the park closed forever. National Park Service rangers Kathy West and Nathan Toland have the clandestine mission to keep dangerous creatures in the park at bay. When several large animals are killed with ferocious savagery, and then two hikers vanish, Kathy is sure another secret National Park monster is on the loose. Nathan’s research uncovers how a secret society first contained the threat. But Bedey is several steps ahead of them, aided by traitorous conspirators within the park, and international help from without. Last time, it took the U.S Army to defeat the ravens. Will the rangers beat the odds and stop the impending reign of terror by the ravens of Yellowstone?

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MAMMOTH ISLAND

severed_press_ — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:22:47 +0000

As paleontologist Grant Coleman waits to board a plane for a much-needed Hawaiian vacation, thugs knock him out and kidnap him. He awakens on a cargo aircraft in flight to find he’s an unwilling member of an expedition to a secret Arctic location called Mammoth Island. Unscrupulous fossil dealer Angelo Destro has assembled the expedition to steal the fruits of a Russian oligarch’s labors The oligarch’s scientists have resurrected extinct wooly mammoths at the island’s laboratory. But from the moment the plane lands, the plan goes to pieces. The lab’s scientists are missing, the compound is a shamble, and it looks like something enormous has crushed the perimeter fence. Even worse, Destro isn’t the only one after this prehistoric prize. Before Grant and the others solve the destroyed lab’s mysteries, Russian soldiers arrive. Destro’s group is forced to flee into the surrounding forests, where killer mammoths lurk, ready to hunt more human prey. Trapped between the twin tips of Russian bayonets and mammoth tusks, who among them will survive and escape Mammoth Island?

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DRAGONS OF KILAUEA

severed_press_ — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 10:39:54 +0000

The tranquil forests of Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park hide a dangerous secret. For centuries, fire-breathing dragons have slumbered in the bowels of the volcano Kilauea. But acts of inexplicable arson and horrific murders around the island appear to have only one explanation. Those dragons have awakened. But there is a much deeper, and broader plot afoot. Romy Saturo Kang has a longstanding grudge against the park system. Teamed up with other unsavory locals, his plan includes not only freeing the dragons, but letting loose an eruption of Kilauea that will drive all but his chosen few from the island forever. Kathy West and Nathan Toland appear to be regular National Park Service Rangers, but they have a secret assignment, to find and contain this kind of supernatural threat. The rangers know the only solution is to seal the dragons back inside their fiery lair…whatever the cost. Kathy and Nathan have faced monsters like this before, but this time they may have met their match. If they can convince a descendant of Hawaiian royalty and his followers to join their cause, they might stand a chance. But the odds will be long, because no one in living memory has survived an encounter with The Dragons Of Kilauea.

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FOREST OF FIRE

severed_press_ — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 21:37:45 +0000

Paleontologist Grant Coleman gets an invitation he can’t decline. Join a rescue mission to find his college mentor, Professor Maxwell Carson, who has gone missing in the wilds of China. But his professor’s notes about his expedition must be wrong. They state that he was hunting for the fossils of dragons.

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CLAWS

severed_press_ — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:46:25 +0000

National Park Service Rangers Kathy West and Nathan Toland are the only ones stationed at Fort Jefferson, a restored Civil War fort sixty miles off Key West, Florida. Two overnight campers go missing, but before the rangers can investigate, shady Homeland Security agent Glen Larsson arrives to close the park due to a purportedly imminent red tide.

Things quickly escalate out of control when mercenaries arrive to back up Larsson and imprison the rangers. Larsson’s plan is to free a cast of giant crabs to overrun the park, and then Florida beyond.

It’s up to Kathy and Nathan to escape the fort, and then, with the help of an old Coast Guard vet and a scientist with inside knowledge of the plot, to save millions of innocents from rampaging giant crabs. But Larsson’s evil plan has been decades in the making, and the crabs seem indestructible. It will take courage, teamwork, and perhaps the ultimate sacrifice, to avert disaster.

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THE CURSE OF THE VIPER KING

severed_press_ — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 16:41:57 +0000

Paleontologist Grant Coleman and environmentalist Janaina Silva, lost in the Amazon rain forest, discover an isolated logging camp, and the chance to hitch a ride back to civilization. But the workers uncover a fossil of a giant snake, almost fifteen meters long. Grant is thrilled, but the superstitious workers believe they have let loose a demon. That night, the world begins to unravel. A mysterious creature attacks the camp, kills several men, and sinks the only boat that can get them home. Soon Grant and the others are in a battle against colossal spiders and a descendant of that great fossilized snake. The key to survival might lie in the lost pyramid of the Aztec Viper King, hidden deep in the rain forest. But they need to get there alive, and one member of the crew has an agenda that doesn’t include Grant and Janaina ever getting home.

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MONSTERS IN THE CLOUDS

severed_press_ — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 17:09:14 +0000

Paleontologist Grant Coleman and activist Janaina Silva are recruited by Thana Katsoros for a top secret expedition, one in search of a live Apatosaurus on a plateau deep in the Amazonian rain forest. But their plane crashes short of their destination, and the entire group faces a terrifying fight for survival. This isolated area hosts unknown animals more fearsome than they’d expected, including giant ants and flesh-eating pterosaurs. Even worse, Katsoros’ agenda has more to it than meets the eye, and Grant soon fears that it doesn’t include all of them getting back alive. Will any expedition members survive to be rescued, or will they be devoured by the creatures indigenous peoples call the monsters in the clouds?

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CAVERN OF THE DAMNED

severed_press_ — Thu, 25 May 2017 10:10:18 +0000

Broke and desperate, paleontologist Grant Coleman gets the chance of a lifetime exploring a long-sealed cave, the fabled home of gigantic creatures. NPS Ranger McKinley Stinson discovers a rancher’s prize bull has been butchered by an airborne killer, and tracks the blood trail back to the re-opened cavern. But as she’s about to arrest the trespassers, the unstable roof collapses, trapping all. Their only way out is at the cave system’s far end. But an eco-system of terrifying mega fauna stands between them and freedom. Death, double-crosses, and a slew of monstrous cave creatures take their toll as the group battles to what they pray is an exit. Will anyone survive this cavern of the damned?

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