Sean O'Brien

Before the death of his wife, Sean O'Brien makes a promise to her that he has no plans to break - until he starts building a new life in an old cabin on a remote stretch of a tropical river in the heart of Florida. It's there that he discovers an injured young woman who whispers a cryptic message into his ear.

A priest hears the confession of a frightened prison inmate, and he learns that a man facing lethal injection in 84 hours is innocent. The lead investigator on the high-profile case was his old friend, Sean O'Brien. And now O'Brien has a chance to right a horrible wrong. But he has less than 84 hours to uncover clues to a crime that sent an innocent man to death row.

After 40 years in San Quentin, Luke Palmer leaves with a state-issued suit, $100 dollars to buy a bus ticket, and a map that will lead to a promise and into the heart of a dark forest. College graduate student Molly Monroe is about to release rare butterflies not far from where the FBI used 4,000 bullets in a shootout to kill Ma Barker and one of her gangster sons in 1935. Molly snaps a picture that will frame something she never sees coming.

Glenda Lawson believes her husband was the only US serviceman shot and killed on American soil during World War II. But in 1945, investigators ruled that Billy Lawson died in a “mugging turned ugly.” Sean O’Brien is learning the ropes of commercial fishing when he gets his anchor caught on something underwater. He discovers a German U-boat partially buried in sand, and inside is a frightening cargo. The media pick up the story, and a 35-year-old woman who has a haunting tale visits O’Brien.

When Courtney Burke appears at Ponce Marina on a humid summer morning, she leaves Sean O’Brien with a haunting tale. Her story could lead O’Brien down a path that began with a brutal crime 40 years earlier and hidden family secrets spawned from the desecration of the innocent. O’Brien learns that Courtney is linked to a series of carnival murders. Police are convinced she’s a serial killer, and all of her victims are men. But like the illusions found in the carnival’s house of mirrors, nothing is as it appears.

When an old man sees an unidentified Civil War photograph of a woman in the newspaper, he begins a desperate search for a 160-year-old painting that he believes will match the image of the enigmatic woman in the photograph, and if it does, it will prove that his great-great-grandfather did not run from battle. After the old man hires Sean O’Brien to find the mysterious painting, O’Brien discovers it’s linked to a secret letter and map that will lead to a trapdoor where a hidden key to the most horrific war on US soil lies buried.

For more than 50 years, not a day goes by when Caroline doesn't think of her brother, Andy. The last time she saw Andy was when he left home to spend 30 days at Florida's largest reform school. Caroline's family was told that Andy ran away in the middle of the night. Fifty years later, Sean O'Brien receives a letter from a dead man. A year earlier the man had hired Sean O'Brien and chartered his boat for a fishing trip. Now the man is reaching from the grave to hire him again.

When Joe Billie stops a grave robber from unearthing a Seminole Indian burial site, Joe becomes the prime suspect in a bizarre murder. For Sean O'Brien, the first challenge is getting Joe to talk about the circumstances surrounding the killing. As Joe faces first-degree murder charges, O'Brien thinks he knows why his old friend is evasive. But proving it will send O'Brien deep into Seminole history to uncover a greedy killer hell-bent on creating a modern-day Trail of Tears.

Sean O’Brien knows that his close friend, Dave Collins, isn’t a man who asks for favors. After three decades as a CIA officer, Collins learned self-reliance from the best school in the world - the streets. However, after five years out of the agency, he stops looking over his shoulder. And then the assassinations begin. One by one. Five of the CIA’s best former officers. Dave Collins’ old colleagues. Local police can’t protect retired CIA officers from ghosts of their past. Dave’s life is on the line, and they are coming for him.

When Sean O’Brien stops near the Florida Everglades to buy flowers for a woman, he doesn’t know that the purchase will lead to a trail of deceit, greed and murder. Chester Miller’s life goal is to restore rare ghost orchids in the Everglades. Entering the glades, he sees something that is very much out of place. The elder botanist becomes a target. O’Brien, in a race with the clock, follows a near invisible path that takes him across Florida in a web of dark political corruption.

In Mermaid, the line between make-believe and murder evaporates when the body of a young woman in a mermaid tail washes ashore on a Florida beach. Police think her death is an accident, maybe connected to a big-budget movie filming in the area. After another girl, this one working as a mermaid at a theme park, drowns, Sean O'Brien becomes involved because the daughter of his close friend may be the next victim, and O'Brien knows there are no coincidences or illusions when it comes to murder. 

In the world of maritime treasure hunting, former college professor Walt Baker is about to hit the lottery. More than 300 years ago, the legendary Spanish galleon Santa Ramona sank in a hurricane somewhere off the coast of Florida. The ship was carrying gold, silver, jewels, and artifacts worth an estimated $10 billion in today’s dollars. With $10 billion at stake, the best criminal minds will scheme to take what’s not theirs. 

When Sean O'Brien watches a girl darting through traffic to pick up money she dropped, he stops to help. The next time he sees her face it's during a TV newscast. She's vanished. As the case grows cold, Sean can't forget the touching story she shared with him. To find her, he must enter the dark web, infiltrate a global criminal ring, and outwit one of the sharpest and most inhuman minds he's ever faced in a battle where the girl's life is reduced to a matter of days.