Jake Tyler, a former Special Forces operative, is taking a short break from his anti-narcotics contract, resting in Costa Rica but already lining up his next job as consultant to a TV production crew. 

He meets Callie Kane after coming to her aid in a city park, where she has been victimized by a local con man.  Callie, who is in Costa Rica to research a book she’s writing, is now without money or a guide, so Jake decides to give her the tour she came for.  By the end of their time together, he is falling in love with Callie, something the war-worn and womanizing warrior instinctively resists.  Even so, he can’t quite break the pull of attraction and suggests she stay on until he returns from the final phase of his South American mission.

Back in-country, Jake’s anti-narcotics work wraps up shrouded in suspicion evoked by the questionable behavior of a military comrade who is also his friend and business partner.  It seems Haskell Delaney has been playing both sides, and his duplicity has stirred the wrath of the powerful Valentín cartel.  When Delaney is killed as a result and a bounty is put on Jake’s head, a showdown is inevitable.  But the narcotraficantes fail to make their hit and find another way to reel Jake in—while he is working with the TV team, Callie is abducted.  Jake must now go after her, and while keeping himself alive he has the added responsibility of protecting the civilians in his care.  And the situation is about to get even worse.  Ironically, intelligence Jake helped to procure during his counter-narcotics work has culminated in the launch of a massive U.S. and Colombian interdiction in the cartel’s territory.  With troops on the move, aircraft inbound, and artillery raining down, time is running out.  The jungle is not. 

Terror in the world takes many forms, much of it gratuitously bloody, but in the oft forgotten and interminable drug war, it’s also personal. 

From the tropical beaches and rainforests of Costa Rica, to the terrifying darkness of Colombia, In the Dark of the Sun smolders with the grit of a seasoned warrior on whose life it is based.  While racing through a relentless stream of action and suspense, the story delves into the fine line between darkness and light…in friendship, in life, and in love. 

With the rapid-fire intensity found in Proof of Life and Tears of the Sun, the familiar elements of Traffic and Blackhawk Down, In the Dark of the Sun stands unique with its combination of eloquent beauty and raw reality.

A plane goes down in the Amazon…
A friend is lost, a love is found, a man is marked.
A powerful cartel is running the game.
And the rules have changed.
The war on drugs lives on.
Somebody is going to die…
But somebody is going to live in a way he’s never lived before.
In the Dark of the Sun, jungle shadows fall.
Who will survive the night?

In the Dark of the Sun…light is just a blink away.  The sun rules.  Or does it?

Several years ago, the idea of me in the middle of an Amazon jungle, let alone researching a book set against the backdrop of the Colombian Drug War, would have been as far-fetched as hitching a ride on the space Shuttle.  And in the company of a machete-wielding Special Forces operative?  Me?  Southern gal whose fair skin burns in the time it takes to twist the top off a tube of sun block, who is deathly allergic to most stinging insects, who had not seen the inside of a sleeping bag since childhood?  And yet, there I was.  The story had been buzzing in one form or another in my mind for years prior, but with our unlikely collaboration, Jake and Callie had come to life.

Over the course of developing, researching, and writing, I have been privy to the mechanics and mindset of a modern-day warrior.  Most people see them showcased on CNN, in splices of combat footage, sometimes in happy homecomings or, sadly, as mourned heroes.  I have seen so much more, and I began to think about the challenge for such a man to slip in and out of “normal” life, jobs, relationships, to have dreams and ambitions beyond the warfront.  I wondered how he would exist and evolve in that twilight. 

Thus, In the Dark of the Sun is more than just an action thriller…it is the launching point for our series in which Jake and Callie will navigate that delicate balance of his darkness and her light.  They are two extremes of the spectrum and blending will not always be easy.  Jake’s missions and work will take him to the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, Russia, the Orient, Latin America, and just about every political hotspot on the globe.  He thrives on the edgy, the unexpected, the unknown, and while he is strongly attracted to Callie for reasons he can’t quite grasp, he has grave concerns about the relationship.  As a man who has always had a firm grip on his mug of coffee, she is like a fine china teacup that feels awkward in his hand—and so utterly breakable.  But there is a nagging thought that perhaps this is the key to a door he’s always wondered about.  He wants to unlock it, step through and try the light.

For Callie, it’s just as much an unexpected attraction.  Jake represents everything that she has avoided in her own life: intense action, spontaneity, risks, exotic places; life, love, and lust with passion and high-impact.  In fact, just prior to meeting Jake in Costa Rica, Callie’s quiet and comfortable life had been tossed into turmoil by the actions of a stalker.  Everything she’s known in her prior “normal” life has evaporated.  Landing in Jake’s realm is like suddenly being surrounded by the Amazon jungle…without sunscreen and insect-repellant.  But it’s exotic and the sense of danger intoxicating.

Yes, it’s going to be an interesting ride.