BEGINNINGS is a compilation of five short stories written after the publication of The Crowsmoor Curse, providing a fuller backstory for the main character Mike Travis.
It all began for Mike Travis with a fatal helicopter crash in war-torn Afghanistan, resulting in him being declared clinically dead for several minutes before the skills of the military medics brought him back.
But he came back with a gift: he could see ghosts,
These five short stories bridge the gap between what happened in the immediate aftermath of the crash to his arrival in Crowsmoor, Cornwall, where he has been summoned to help prevent the return of an ancient evil.
Beginnings charts his progress from his first encounter with a ghost to becoming a recognised and respected investigator into all things paranormal. For readers of the series, these five short stories will be familiar territory but if you haven't yet met Mike, Beginnings may just be the invitation you need to enter Mike's paranormal world.
The Crowsmoor Curse
The dead of Crowsmoor are light sleepers.
Some say they sleep with one eye open, keeping watch over the restless ones.
When Beth Trevithick arrives as the new vicar in the isolated and scattered community that is Crowsmoor, in the middle of bleak Bodmin Moor, she finds a community entrenched in fear and superstition and belief in an ancient curse born of dark magic.
Help arrives in the form of Mike Travis, ex-RAF helicopter pilot medically discharged after a deadly crash in Afghanistan - a crash that left him clinically dead before service medics brought him back to life. But that came with a price, he could now see ghosts and wandering spirits.
Now his life is devoted to investigating the paranormal.
Long Shadows
Old sins cast long shadows, it is said, But how many centuries can they lay dormant, festering and polluting, before they are awakened and laid to rest?
In the borderland between Wales and England, where the veil between the worlds is thin and intrusion from the Otherworld is commonplace, time has no meaning and the boundaries between past and present are blurred into insignificance.
When Mike Travis and his wife relocate to rural Monmouthshire they didn't bargain for a sitting tenant. The spirit of Adain Powell, brutally murdered by the lecherous and ruthless Judge Llewellyn in 1654, still haunts their cottage and adjoining wood, unable to rest until the truth surrounding her death and the wrongful accusation of her husband for her murder are brought to light.
In the cellar of The Black Mountain Inn another is stirring, Judge Thomas Llewellyn's grave is unearthed and his old bones. his very old bones, are the focus of black magic ritual intended to bring about his return.
The Haunted Diary of
Victoria Little
When Mike Travis stays at home to finish writing his next book he doesn't expect to be embroiled in a new investigation. A mysterious letter and diary are sent to him and he soon finds himself battling ancient demons with the help of friends old and new.
He believes that Victoria Little is the victim of possession rather than mental illness and sets out to free her and rid her of the vicious demon Ahriman.
The fight takes him into the world of magic at its darkest which has stretched its legacy into lives past and present.
Who is connected to this ancient evil and which side of the Abyss do they live on?
Who can he trust?
The Merlin Manuscript
Mike Travis' day is about to get way past crazy. His friend, Jack Carter, has been kidnapped, and it all revolves around an old manuscript that was supposedly a copy of one made by Merlin, friend and magician to King Arthur, before he was magically cast into a crystal cave, betrayed by his lover and student, Nimue.
Who has Jack and where is he?
The trail leads Mike to the Inquisition which is alive and well on the fringes of the Vatican, stretching its tentacles into his own neighbourhood. They want the manuscript and what it refers to - Merlin and Excalibur.
And they will do whatever they have to, to obtain their ends.
To save Jack, Mike has to journey back through the veil of time and place, to Avalon. Accompanied by Benjamin Lovecraft, ex-Catholic priest and exorcist they seek to claim Excalibur and find Merlin. The worlds of magic and legend collide to draw Mike into a quest that will lead him to find more than a magician and a sword.
The Sacred Ark
A longer pause and then a lowered tone.
"Jesus Christ, Josh! What have you foubd?"
An even longer pause.
"The Ark of the Covenant."
When paranormal investigator, Mike Travis, answers a call for help, he doesn't anticipate being flung headlong into Ancient Egyptian secrets in the sacred Ark. An old acquaintance needs his help in his search for proof that his controversial theories are correct; theories which have resulted in him being ridiculed by the world of archaeology. Mike finds himself at the heart of the Sinai Desert pursued by government and Vatican hit men, all desperate to find the same thing: The Ark of the Covenant.
What secrets does it hide and where will it take him?
REVIEW OF THE SACRED ARK.
There was a lot I would expect from an adventure book that featured the Ark of the Covenant - different factions competing to either hide, destroy, or possess the Ark for a range of reasons as well as a good paced story.
What I really liked however was the willingness to ask what the Ark might actually be and to introduce a plot line about this that a reader could sit with and at the end of it ponder "Could it .... ? No ....! But it sounded ...." I liked this aspect, as most novels in my experience, that deal with such mythological artefacts stop short of offering such an understanding and stay merely on the action or adventure level.
Fallen Angels And Demons
"The Demons have declared war on Mike Travis and it ain't pretty, see. You just offed one of their big boys and his bitch and they ain't going to let that go easy down there."
(Dai Bricks ... The Sin Eater)
Things just got hotter and darker for Mike Travis after he killed the demon Asteroth in the cursed Welsh village of Aberth. Now they are out to get him, but not before they make him suffer. He must leave behind the paranormal investigations and become something else, something darker: become a Demon Hunter.
Unwilling to sit back and wait for the fight, he takes it to them, especially when those he loves are targeted by Malgron, a high-ranking demon and brother of Asteroth. HIs fight strengthens friendships and loyalties, but, also brings with it surprising revelations and sacrifices.
As the demons attack those closest to him, Mike must meet the darkness head-on, in a place where darkness itself is spawned and raised.
Nothing will ever be the same again.
"Deep beneath the earth n the Plain of Jezreel, just outside the place that had become known as Megiddo, a dark energy was stirring; waiting for the day when it would be free of the tomb of earth, free to work it's havoc on this world, returning it once more, to darkness and chaos."
(The Sacred Ark)
Mike Travis is still trying t come to terms with his new role as a Demon Hunter. He's been to Hell and back, literally, and the demons have declared war on him and all those he cares for. Now it's a case of get them before they get him.
As he tries to understand how to battle the demons and win, he gets a call from an old friend and ally - Josh Hammond - the archaeologist who found the Ark of the Covenant and brought Mike into its purpose and destiny in The Sacred Ark .
Josh calls him to tell him that during an archaeological dig in Megiddo, the accepted biblical site of the ultimate battle between good and evil, something is rising - something dark, something evil. The Demon Ark is rising, and with it, the means to open every portsl to Hell on the earth.
HIs own life is in turmoil, byt perhaps combattig this evil will bring a solution to his own personal crisis.
Expect to meet old friends and make new ones in this installment of The Mike Travis Demon Hunter series.
The Demon Ark (Mike Travis Demon Hunter Book 2) eBook : McDonald, Jan: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
The Demon Ark
Midwinter
It's hard enough being a Demon Hunter, but what do you do when there's a demon inside you, and not just that, it's keeping you alive?
Mike Travis has such a dilemma, on top of which, his family life is in chaos; his wife, Beth, is lost in her own world following emotional and spiritual trauma, and his daughter has fled to Avalon, beyond the veil behind Glastonbury, where she is safe.
He's relieved when a phone call from an old friend takes him to a Welsh village near the Wales/England border. The village is steeped in 'traditions' that were keeping an ancient evil at bay - traditions that go back to an Iron-Age sacrifice that was made to create a pact with a demon.
It is Midwinter and the pact has been broken, leaving the demon Mazziqin free to claim her victims.
Midwinter - the Winter Solstice - is a time of death and renewal, of offering and sacrifice. It is a time of dying. Mike must work with his friend and fellow hunter, Ben Lovecraft, to free this community from Mazziqin and her lover - Lucifer - before Midwinter's Night.
Amazon.co.uk : midwinter jan mcdonald
DJINN
Mike Travis is in trouble; the kind that gets you killed.
Not only is he up against a hoard of demons that have piggy-backed a ride from a wounded soldier returning from Afghanistan, but he is also the target for the evil Djinni.
When Mike died in Megiddo in his efforts to prevent the Demon Ark from birthing onto the Earth, his best friend and partner in crime, Jack Carter, made a decision to save him; a decision that would have deadly consequences and would change their lives forever.
Jack sanctioned a demon, Bazaliel, the Shadow Demon, to possess his friend, on the understanding and agreement that the demon would keep Mike alive and heal him, body and soul.
But Jack had forgotten Lovecraft's Rules:
Rule 1# Demons lie.
Rule 2# Demons lie.
Rule 3# Demons lie.
Rule 4# If you think they aren't lying, you're wrong!
Betrayed by Bazaliel, Mike is disintegrating into a darkness of his own, as the Shadow Demon slowly but surely consumes his mind and his soul.
Lucifer and the demon Pazuzu are back and are slugging it out for the throne of Hell, to which Mike holds the key.
Summoned back to where he said he would never return, Mike is headed for Crowsmoor, the isolated hamlet on bleak and windswept Bodmin Moor. He is returning to where it al began.
Djinn (Mike Travis Demon Hunter Book 4) eBook : McDonald, Jan: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
Mike Travis Short Story Collections
HALLOWEEN
Halloween – or All Hallows’ Eve: A night when we can expect murmurings from beyond the veil. Paranormal investigator, Mike Travis, is kept busy keeping spirits and demons away from us at the best of times. But on Halloween he has his work cut out as people meddle with forces that they don’t understand.
So once the ‘trick or treaters’ have gone home, light the fire, turn the lights down and be prepared to see things in the shadows when you read these four seasonal short stories.
CHRISTMAS SPIRITS
Mike Travis gets no peace over Christmas. From a haunted painting, to a demonic Santa, to a scary panto and – oh yes – you know that sweet looking doll; the one that every little girl wants? Uh huh, I’d think twice if I were you!
Christmas Spirits brings you four more short stories to keep you awake at night, or at least asleep with the light on!
Some of your old friends revisit at the Christmas Season and we see glimpses of Dai Bricks, Martha Treneglos, Ben - and of course, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Jack!
THE FATHER BECKETT VAMPIRE SERIES
MIDNIGHT WINE
Ex Catholic priest, Beckett, is out for blood. Vampire blood.
History is repeating itself and Beckett enlists the help of Dr Lane Dearing, herself a powerful vampire, in an effort to save the beautiful Katerini from a sadistic and vicious Undead. Their struggle leads them from the mysterious mountains of the Brecon Beacons in Wales to an isolated monastery in rural Greece where they encounter one of the Ancient Ones who has his own reasons for wanting Katerini.
Midnight Wine is a vampire tale of love, revenge and sacrifice. Vampires are real. They exist.
And they are out there...
Amazon.co.uk : MIDNIGHT WINE jan mcdonald
LYCAN
Vampires... and a werewolf!
Acceptance didn’t sit well with ex-Catholic priest Beckett. And being a vampire wasn’t going to come easy. Struggling with his new life he finds himself helping another whose life has been dramatically changed. Jude Mason is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; but Beckett and the elegant vampire Lane Dearing believe that there is more to it. Much more.
Their efforts to understand and help the man are hampered by unfinished business. In the tiny monastery in Greece, where they believed they had ended the killing spree of ruthless and savage vampires, one has survived. They must return to finish what began years previously with the death of the beautiful newly turned vampire, Katerini.
In Greece, there is as much to lose as to be won and with the stakes high someone has to pay the price.
Lycan: Volume 2 (The Beckett Vampire Trilogy): Amazon.co.uk: McDonald, Jan: 9780993374753: Books
SANCTUARY
Sanctuary: Definition in the Oxford English Dictionary - Refuge, or place of safety from pursuit or other danger.
High in the Carpathian Mountains, Beckett’s nemesis, Vasile Tepes, is contemplating the unthinkable – the resurrection of his ancestor, Vlad Tepes, better known – thanks to the fiction classic – as Dracula.
Meanwhile, Lane, Beckett’s partner and love, still lies in Greece in the Long Sleep, healing from the near-fatal wounds received at the hands of Tepes, leaving Beckett to watch over things back home, and wait.
Vasile Tepes has invited the elders of the other vampire Houses to a meeting at his mountain home where war is on the agenda – war between the Born and the Created vampires. And he has his eye on his first target – The Sanctuary, where newly-turned vampires can find help.
In this final part of the Father Beckett Trilogy, the future of the Created vampires hangs in the balance. Lives will be lost, lives will be changed forever, and bonds will be strengthened in the final battle in the depths of the Transylvanian winter.
Fans of the Mike Travis novels will be pleased to find him here in this cross-over story.
WELCOME
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