San Gabriel's Secret by David Ciambrone

Nestled on the San Gabriel River in Central Texas’ Hill Country, Georgetown is a small town where things are normally pretty quiet. That is, until Adam Thomas, a retired scientist and now writer of a newspaper column for women under the name Aunt Kay, inherits a Confederate solder’s journal and a new murder. Adam and his girlfriend Kathy find themselves the center of dark doings, strange people and racing headlong into a fast paced, high stakes adventure to untangle a murderous puzzle, a series of macabre organizations and locate the centuries old and highly unusual, San Gabriel Secret.

*****

I really enjoyed this one. If you are a fan of David Ciambrone's, you'll love it too.

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Chimera by David Ciambrone

Someone broke into the high-level security section of US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES at Fort Detrick, Maryland and steals vials of weaponized smallpox. Later he dies at the Washington, DC train station after a clandestine hand off to another person.

Jack Turner, Ph.D., is a chemist and the Coroner of San Sebastian County California.  He is also a reserve officer (Lt. Colonel) in the Army Medical Service Corp and has a background in chemical and biological warfare from working for defense contractors and a stint at USAMRIID (US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES).  One of his Medical Examiners hits the HOT ZONE lock down button while performing an autopsy.  Jack is called to the morgue. The body the M.E. was examining died of smallpox. Not regular smallpox, but an unusual and highly reactive strain of the disease. Jack examines and realizes it is a man made chimera.  The smallpox released from the inside the cells of an E-coli bacteria as the cells were killed by antibiotics and the dead man’s immune system. Who made it? Where did it come from? E-coli is common. But, smallpox was eradicated decades ago. He knows there are still strains of smallpox in labs in Russia and in the US. Jack notifies the state and the CDC. He is notified by the federal government to keep it quiet.  Dr. Jack Turner receives orders from the U.S. Army Adjutant General activating his reserve commission and authorizes him to act as a law enforcement special agent of the army. Jack and a health department officer, Nancy Cartwright must-find the source of the Chimeras and smallpox, find the perpetrators and stop anyone from using it as a terrorist weapon and causing a pandemic. He and Nancy must stop an attack worse than an atom bomb.

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*****

Generally, I don't care for military type books but I really enjoyed this one. Of course, I tend to like all of David's books.  You can check out his others here.

Dangerous Threads by David Ciambrone

Virginia Davies-Clark must find a quilt missing for seventy years. An award-winning quilt hiding an amazing secret. Virginia Davies-Clark is called back into the service of the Smithsonian Central Security Service and the Department of Defense, along with her husband, Andy, and her friend, Donna, to locate a quilt. This isn't just any quilt. At the 1933 Century of Progress in Chicago, Sears Roebuck Company sponsored a quilt contest. The Grand Prize was to be $1,000.00. The quilt that won the prize was a pieced called "The Unknown Star" by the maker, Margaret Rogers Caden of Kentucky. The quilt itself was presented to the President's wife, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Sometime during FDR's presidency, the quilt disappeared and has not been seen for almost seventy years. Virginia questions why the DOD is interested in an old quilt. As she, Andy and Donna start their quest, they find they are not the only ones searching for the quilt and they are attacked by various organizations bent on stopping her. Their adversary list grows as they try to accomplish an impossible assignment. Virginia makes some strange alliances across the country to take down the organizations trying to stop her. Using her wits, cunning, intellect, and guts, she, Andy and Donna attempt to locate the quilt and use any means she can to undermine a bold strategy by her adversaries trying to kill her and her little group. Her conniving, devious and messy strategy brings the villains to an explosive end.

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*****

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I love David's books. He has a whole series with Virginia including another "quilt" mystery.

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