Operation Red Jericho (The Guild of Specialists). This item is unavailable.Operation Red Jericho (The Guild of Specialists)

A sister and brother's search for their missing parents uncovers a mysterious secret society in an action-filled sea-and-land saga centered in 1920s Shanghai.

For Joshua Mowll, it was the surprise of a lifetime. There, among the archives inherited from his great-aunt Rebecca MacKenzie, was a 1920s journal recounting the thrilling and dangerous adventures of fifteen-year-old Rebecca and her younger brother, Doug, in the wake of their parents' mysterious disappearance in the deserts of China. Now carefully re-created in a lavish volume — complete with cloth binding and a journal-style elastic clasp — the siblings' tale begins aboard the Expedient, their uncle's enigmatic research ship, and moves at a breathless pace through the streets of Shanghai and on to a terrifying island fortress. Along the way, Doug and Becca encounter an ancient order of Chinese mercenaries, a brutal pirate warlord, a feisty Texan heiress, and a stolen cache of a volatile explosive called zoridium. By their saga's end, the intrepid duo has exposed a murderous plot involving their parents and uncovered a high-minded secret society hidden from the world for hundreds of years. Interspersed are such "archival" elements as:

— elaborate diagrams and maps
— vintage photos and illustrations
— documents with stamps, seals, and watermarks
— four full-color gatefolds, the largest a six-page foldout
— extensive appendices and notes

Painstakingly researched and packed with authentic detail, OPERATION RED JERICHO is the first of three nonstop-action tales of intrigue by first-time author Joshua Mowll — historical fiction at its finest.

Joshua Mowll has worked as a graphic artist for the MAIL ON SUNDAY since 1994. During that time he has illustrated and drawn everything from space flights, medical procedures, and airplane crashes to ancient pyramid theories, invasions, and laser-guided weaponry. Of Southeast Asian pirates, one of the plot elements in OPERATION RED JERICHO, he says, "The word pirates immediately conjures up images of the Caribbean, Blackbeard, and buried treasure. But for sheer scale and professionalism, Chinese and Southeast Asian piracy has a much longer and more notorious history." Joshua Mowll lives in London. OPERATION RED JERICHO is his first book.