The Dowland Cases

Reset – Book 1

Reset – Amazon

Someone is murdering wealthy metaverse gamers.

RJ Dowland invented the process for players to immerse into the metaverse, living as an avatar inside the computers worlds. But the immersion left some of the players addicted to the impulses in their nerve endings, choosing to remain inside while their bodies wasted away in real life. RJ became one of the addicted.

With his fortune lost, he weaned himself off the games, eking out a life as a socially-inept homicide detective with a partner who calls him names, an ex-wife who will not acknowledge him, and the choice to use other addictions to fight off returning inside the metaverse.

But the FBI has approached RJ because they are investigating a series of murdered gamers who ignored the government regulations and lived inside the computer worlds. They need his game experience and knowledge to catch the serial killer before more are murdered. The agents ask him to enter the metaverse again, putting his life in danger, to chase an old nemesis from his past when he ruled the gaming world.

Now RJ is back inside a game, trapped in a 1930s film noir world as a private detective and searching for the serial killer while negotiating his way through the gangsters, roscoes, and dames. Every step he takes toward meeting his former enemy is haunted by one question: Even if he finds the killer, will RJ be able to pull himself away from the metaverse worlds that are more real to him than his life?

Quest Call – Book 2

Quest Call – Amazon

People are dying.

Terrorists attack innocent civilians around the world with precision and coordination on an unimaginable scale. Cities large and small are gripped with terror as the world’s intelligence agencies desperately search for answers, wondering how and where the groups are meeting to make their plans.

Detective Rick “RJ” Dowland continues his assignment with the FBI, trying to balance his addiction to metaverse gaming and real life, feeling his hold slip more every day. With the serial killer Raven now behind bars, he prowls the streets in a 1930s noir world, The City, searching for criminals who are attempting to hide on the inside while keeping his promise to the woman who died saving his life.

But now, a fellow agent has been killed in a virtual world and his family attacked in real life, with all the clues pointing to the terrorists. Rick agrees to leave The City and enter another game, hunting against the clock for answers before the terrorists strike again.

Gemini Divided – Book 3

Gemini Divided – Amazon

Device.

No single word sends more fear into the hearts of law enforcement and government organizations than to learn a device may be in play in a terrorist situation.

Detective Rick “RJ” Dowland is working his beat for the FBI inside The City, a metaverse virtual reality game based on 1930s noir gangster films. He is searching for Gwen Talbot, The Raven, an escaped serial killer who murdered long-term players for their money and to punish them as revenge for her dead brother.

While on her trail, RJ hears about a man who may be planning to unleash a device upon an unsuspecting population in the real world. He manages to get close, but the man disappears from the game, brutally resetting a female player on his way out, an occurrence that has been happening across several metaverse worlds. With real lives at stake, the detective leaves The City to join the hunt with other FBI agents.

Now RJ is chasing rumors of the device in a space opera game, Gemini Divided, flying around in beat up spaceships with smugglers, firing blasters, and landing in the middle of a civil war in a faraway galaxy. He might find the missing man and the device if he can help the rebellion win, but the more he learns about what is going on inside the game, the more he realizes the disappearing female players may be the key to the mystery.

The Beach – Book 4

The Beach – Amazon

The serial killer, Raven, is still on the loose.

Detective RJ Dowland is back inside The City, the 1930s noir metaverse game. He is searching for former FBI agent Gwen Talbot, also known as The Raven, after she barely escaped from him when he cracked a sex slave ring that trapped people inside the games. But after being so close to putting her in prison again, the murderer’s trail has gone cold.

RJ’s world is turned upside down when someone breaks into the FBI facility where his body is kept while he works inside the metaverse. The intruder murders one of RJ’s friends and then yanks the detective out of The City, dropping him into a game run by the prison system to keep the worst criminals off the streets in real life.

Trapped inside the metaverse on an island with murderers, drug runners, terrorists, and another serial killer even more frightening than The Raven, RJ struggles to keep his identity a secret while he searches for a way to escape. But even if he can discover a way to freedom, he is still left with the questions of who caged him and why.

The Kindred: Reborn – Book 5

The City – Book 6