Double Trouble - A Templar Chronicles/Lawson Vampire Combo Pack

March 1921. The War to End All Wars continues, with no foreseeable end in sight. The Central Powers control most of Europe, with only a thin stretch of French coastline still in Allied hands. A beleaguered Britain fights resolutely on, but everyone knows that without the continued support of the United States it would fall within weeks. Even that may not be enough to defeat the brilliance of the Central Powers' scientists and the advantages their weird science gives to their troops as wave after wave of zombie troops are sent against the Allied front lines...

On May 1st, 2012 HarperVoyager published BY THE BLOOD OF HEROES, the first book in the new zombie steampunk alternate history series known as The Great Undead War by internationally bestselling author Joseph Nassise.

Here, for the first time, is the story behind the story. Follow the hero of The Great Undead War series, Captain Michael "Madman" Burke, leader of Burke's Marauders, in the early days of the war, when Burke is a newly promoted lieutenant and the Germans are just beginning test a new weapon. A weapon that will eventually come to change the face of the war itself, that will resurrect the bodies of the dead, both friend and foe alike, and turn them into flesh-eating monsters. A weapon that will come to be known as corpse gas.

Contains:
* The Sharp End - a prequel story introducing the characters and events of the Great Undead War series

* A Timeline of the Great Undead War, identifying major events and military battles

* The first two chapters of BY THE BLOOD OF HEROES, the first book in the Great Undead War series

(Cover art by Brad Cooper of Cooper Design Studio)

PRAISE FOR THE GREAT UNDEAD WAR SERIES
"Urban fantasy and sf author Nassise (Eyes To See) raises the alternate history genre to brilliant new heights. This is a treat for zombie and horror fans, military fiction aficionados, history buffs, and steampunk lovers alike, all of whom will be clamoring for the next installment." (Library Journal)

"Relentless pacing, nonstop action, and improbable but nifty-sounding military gadgetry (portable personal gliding devices, magnetism grenades) power an unremittingly entertaining story line that with broad appeal for history buffs, horror aficionados, and fans of steampunk." (Publishers Weekly)

"BY THE BLOOD OF HEROES is a genre-twisting madhouse of horror, Steampunk SF and zombie madness that is too damn much fun to miss! Buckle up...this is a wild ride!" (Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of ROT & RUIN and FLESH & BONE)

"Joe Nassise delivers one amazing alternative history adventure in By the Blood of Heroes....a tour-de-force of adrenaline-drenched mayhem." (Jon Merz, author of Shadow Warrior and Lawson Vampire series)

"I would argue Joseph Nassise is the most important thing to happen to zombies since Max Brooks, and that's no hyperbole. He's really that good." (Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award winning author of Dead City and Flesh Easters)

The long-awaited return to the world of the Templar Chronicles by the internationally bestselling author of Eyes to See and By the Blood of Heroes!

The Templars have emerged victorious following their battle with the Chiang Shih, but paid a high price in doing so.  The dead line the halls of the local commanderies and the survivors are both physically and spiritually exhausted.  Estimates suggest it will take years for the Order to recover.

Even Echo Team has been decimated; its ranks reduced by half.  Knight Commander Cade Williams managed to survive his journey deep into the heart of the Beyond and his subsequent confrontation with the Adversary, but he has returned a changed man; his thirst for vengeance quenched but his spirit broken.  As a result, command of Echo has passed to the newly-promoted Captain Riley.

It is the moment Simon Logan, former leader of the Council of Nine and the man once known as the Necromancer, has been waiting for.  In a daring prison break, he frees himself from Templar control and vanishes into the night.  Given the difficulty the Order had in capturing him the first time, the assignment to track Logan down falls to those who know him best – Captain Riley and the newly reformed Echo Team.

But rather than waiting for Echo to coming looking for him, the Necromancer takes the battle to them instead; luring former Commander Williams away from his home and stealing the physical form of his wife, Gabrielle, a woman caught somewhere between life and death.

It is perhaps the one act that could rouse Cade from the grey haze his life has become.  As he ruthlessly tracks the Necromancer through this world and the next,  Cade can’t help but ask himself what Logan might want with a half-dead woman and the man who had literally travelled to hell and back to rescue her.

One thing is for certain – Cade won’t rest until Gabrielle is by his side once more.

The men of the Echo Team are back for another action-packed Templar adventure!

Three years ago an archaeological expedition led by Vatican scholar Juan Vargas discovered something unusual on the shores of the Dead Sea. Early the next morning, Father Vargas, and the artifact he uncovered, disappeared without a trace.

Until now.

An injured and badly dehydrated Father Vargas wanders out of the New Mexican desert, telling a wild story about a secret research installation and bloodthirsty demons hunting men through its halls. When word of his survival reaches the Vatican and those in charge of the Templar Order, the Echo Team is called in to deal with the situation. Their orders - investigate the facility, determine exactly what happened there, and deal with any infernal presence that might exist.

But the being they encounter there beneath the desert sands has found a way to break the bonds of Hell itself and doesn't plan on going back easily. This time, their foe might prove to be too much for even Cade and the men of Echo Team.

A novel in the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles urban fantasy series

When Knight Commander Cade Williams discovers that his wife, Gabrielle, is not truly dead, but held in some kind of arcane stasis between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead, he vows that nothing will stop him from freeing her soul from the prison surrounding her.

But his vow is tested right from the start when an old friend calls on him to help protect the city of Boston from the ancient scourge that threatens to destroy it, leaving Cade with a heart-breaking choice: Do his duty and save the innocent lives he has sworn to protect or forsake them all in order to rescue the one for whom he would brave the walls of hell itself?

A former SWAT officer turns modern Templar Knight in this exciting new urban fantasy series for fans of Jim Butcher, Rob Thurman, and Patricia Briggs! 

Boston SWAT officer Cade Williams doesn't believe in the supernatural until a chance meeting with a fallen angel leaves his wife dead and him holding on to life by the thinnest of margins.  When he is discharged from the hospital, scarred body and soul, he discovers the encounter has left him with a few otherworldly talents of his own.

Several years later, Knight Commander Cade Williams runs the elite Templar combat unit known as the Echo Team, which puts him in the perfect position to search for the creature he's come to know as the Adversary.  His efforts yield little success, however, until a cabal of necromancers attempts to seize an ancient Templar artifact for their own nefarious purposes and gives him the first real lead he's had in ages.  Now it's time for Cade to face his demons - human and otherwise.

PRAISE FOR THE HERETIC:

"First-rate, stylish work from Mr. Nassise, with a steady escalation of the story's speed that makes it almost literally breath-taking." -- Clive Barker

"This book bobs and weaves like the young Muhammed Ali, keeping us off-guard and entertained with its every surprising move." -- Peter Straub

"A breakneck-paced thriller that delivers on the thrills and tosses in more than a few more chills." -- Kelley Armstrong

Three amazing Lawson Vampire novels - 250,000 words of pure action & mayhem collected into one ebook bundle.

THE FIXER: The book that started it all back when it was first published in May 2002, this first novel in the Lawson Vampire series pits Lawson against his age-old nemesis Cosgrove - who has come back to Boston to slaughter innocents and raise an ancient vampire god to destroy the world. When Lawson is finally given the okay to terminate Cosgrove, he soon finds himself in need of help from his old mentor Zero and an unlikely new ally: the beautiful and deadly ex-KGB assassin Talya.

THE INVOKER: The second novel in the series, originally published back in October 2002, puts Lawson in the challenging role as protector of a young boy with the ability to conjure the spirits of dead vampires. When a power-hungry Council member wants the boy for her own nefarious purposes and employs an ex-Fixer to kidnap him, Lawson will stop at nothing to get him back - even if it means leaving Boston for the skyscraping Himalayas!

THE ENCHANTER: This novel takes place before the events of THE FIXER (but was written in 2010), back when Lawson was still a bit green in operations. When he is teamed up with his mentor Zero to track down an old thorn in the Council's side, they soon uncover a vast conspiracy on the island nation of Madagascar that might just have global consequences...and deadly consequences for Zero unless Lawson can find a way to save him.

The author's website is http://www.jonfmerz.net

Praise for Jon F. Merz:

"Lawson is more like Jason Bourne than Dracula, making this a vampire mystery with broad appeal." --Booklist

"A powerful novel by a man who knows the turf already." -NYT Bestselling author Robert. B. Parker

"Jon F. Merz's novels move at a break-neck pace, twisting through a landscape of thrills and terror." -- Douglas Clegg, author of The Infinite and The Priest of Blood

"...a fine stalking session in vampire-noir land...a series and talented writer I'll be sticking with all the way." -- Mort Castle, author of The Strangers and On Writing Horror

Praise for Jon F. Merz's THE KENSEI (A Lawson vampire Novel #5):

"If James Bond, True Blood and Kill Bill created a mutant hybrid of a book, it would be The Kensei. A bullet train slice 'em, dice 'em mixture of action, suspense, and vampire ninjas. Did I mention vampire ninjas?"--Jason Pinter, bestselling author of The Fury and The Darkness

"The Kensei is an action novel with real bite. Vampires, Yakuza killers, crooks and animal-monster hyrbids. Jon F. Merz brings his A-game and then ratchets it up to a whole new level of supernatural action. Highly recommended!" --Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of The Dragon Factory and Patient Zero

"In The Kensei, Jon F. Merz seamlessly welds gritty detail with myth and legend to create a thrill ride into the shadow-world lurking beneath modern Japan. Lawson's fight against evil has bone-crunching authenticity. Plus, it has vampires, ninjas, and vampire ninjas. What more could anyone ask?"--Christopher Farnsworth, author or Blood Oath

About The Author:

Jon F. Merz is a writer with over two dozen published novels, a producer for New Ronin Entertainment and a trained black belt ninja. He has taught defensive tactics to civilian crime watch groups, police, military units, and agencies like the US Department of State, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Prisons. In his past, Jon served with the United States Air Force, worked for the US government, and handled executive protection for Fortune 500 clients. He lives with his wife and two sons in suburban Boston.

A special Lawson Vampire mission that reunites the Fixer Lawson with Jack the Invoker. When the death of a prominent vampire on the Maine coast leads to a community squabble, Lawson is dispatched the mediate. What he and Jack find instead may be a whole lot more sinister than they imagined...and part of a puzzle that has been plaguing Lawson for years.

A horrifying serial killer is loose on the streets of Boston and Lawson must track him down. But this killer has a past...and a terrifying agenda. And it's one that will shock even the most jaded Fixer around.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Meet Lawson: vampire by birth, Fixer by trade. His mission: preserve the secret existence of vampires by any means necessary.

LAWSON.

A cynical, wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance - the secret existence of a race of LIVING vampires that have evolved alongside humanity for thousands of years.

A FIXER.

Part-spy, and part-commando -- James Bond with fangs. Lawson mixes shrewd cunning with unmatched lethality to get his job done. He tries his best to dismantle conspiracies, dispatch bad guys, and live long enough to get home.

ARTHUR.

The grizzled retired Fixer has seen his share of danger, and he's also got his share of skeletons in his closet. Now, one of them is coming back.

THE RIPPER.

A horrifying serial killer that is targeting young vampire women and leaving their eviscerated bodies on the streets of Boston.

MARTY.

She wants nothing more than to become a Fixer, like Lawson. But will her desire end up killing her?

NILES.

Lawson's Control is in love, but can he finally enjoy a relationship that lasts, or will this one lead to more heartbreak?

XIANG.

A top Chinese assassin in Boston and on Lawson's tail. But what's he really in town to accomplish?

N'YAK TUL

An ancient race of subterranean dwellers too frightening to ever see the light of day again...hopefully.

ALTDORF (Book 1 of The Forest Knights Duology)

A wild land too mountainous to be tamed by plows...
A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition...
A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests...
And an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all.

Re-imagining the William Tell legend--without William Tell

At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.

Thomas Schwyzer, released from his vows by the Grandmaster of the Hospitallers, returns to the land of his birth a stranger. Once a leader of men, and captain of the Order's most famous war galley, he now settles into the simple life of a ferryman. He believes this new role to be God's reward for years of faithful service fighting the Infidel in Outremer.

Seraina, considered a witch by most, a healer by some, is a young woman with a purpose. A Priestess of the Old Religion, and the last Druid disciple of the Helvetii Celts, she has been gifted by the Great Weave to see what others cannot. Her people need her guidance and protection now more than ever. For Duke Leopold of Habsburg, in his efforts to control the St. Gotthard Pass, builds a great Austrian fortress in Altdorf. Once finished, the Habsburg occupation will be complete, but the atrocities visited upon her people will have just begun.

Set in medieval Switzerland, ALTDORF, a novel of The Forest Knights, is the first book in a two-book series.

76,000 words

 

1982: It was supposed to be a well-deserved break from elite Selection training for STA-F, but an hour into a flight to the sandy white beaches of Santorini, Lawson's flight is hijacked by a trio of vampires and redirected to the island nation of Malta. With the local authorities and a squadron of Delta Force operators surrounding them, the bad guys need Lawson to do them a favor: escape the plane and break someone out of protective custody on the island. But just who is this target and why do they want him so badly? With time ticking down, Lawson's got to sort it all out before he winds up in the crosshairs and gets a double-tap for his trouble.