DAN’S NEW GILDED SECRET SERIES- OVER 1,1OO REVIEWS – DAN ANNOUNCES BOOK 3! — Books 1 & 2 of my New Series are doing SO WELL, I’ve decided to keep it going. I spent all of September in research and have already written THE FIRST 5 CHAPTERS OF BOOK 3.

The Perfect Stranger and Scandal At The Belmont have received an astounding number of Reviews in such a short time. You can Start Reading BOTH for “FREE” with a #KINDLEUNLIMITED subscription. Also Available on Kindle, Print, and Audiobook. Click the LINKS below to GET YOUR COPIES NOW. 

The Perfect Stranger – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2PDGD62

Scandal At The Belmont –  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGVRQ8C9

BONUS! – READ CHAPTER 1 OF BOOK 3 BELOW:

BOOK 3 – CHAPTER 1
(No Title Yet)

January 11th, 1917 – Kingsland, New Jersey

Canadian Car & Foundry Munitions Plant

11 Miles West of Central Park, New York City

The wind coming off the Passaic River carried the sting of cold iron and burning coal smoke. Gray plumes rose from the tall chimneys scattered among the many buildings of the plant. Inside, the roar of machines and the clatter of shell casings echoed like a thousand hammers on anvils. Sounds the fourteen hundred employees were so used to, they barely heard them anymore.

Just around the corner of Building 30, three men stood in the shadows of stacked wooden crates, their voices pitched low. Fritz Baum wiped his palms on his workman’s trousers. “Herr Adler, this is madness. He sees us—he just called out. He’s reaching into his overcoat, maybe for his gun—”

“Immer Deutsch,” Fritz’s companion Heinrich muttered, his panic spilling over into his mother tongue.

The leader turned sharply, eyes cold as steel. “Always in English,” Kramer hissed. “You know this. Never in German. I shouldn’t have to keep telling you.”

The younger man swallowed hard. “Yes… yes, sir. I mean—he’s coming this way. What do we do?”

What they did not do was panic. Not Kurt Adler. He was no dockside laborer playing at war. He had been sent from Berlin with orders as clear as the sky above them: disrupt the flow of munitions feeding Britain and France. Today’s task had been simple enough—slip into Building 30, plant the incendiary device, and leave. The fire would creep along unnoticed until the warehouse became a funeral pyre, setting off a massive explosion. Hundreds of workers caught inside, the Allies robbed of a million shells.

A perfect strike.

But this man’s shout had shattered their careful timing. Across the yard, scarcely a hundred yards away, he came dressed in plain clothes but with an air of authority about him. A detective perhaps? Now, a revolver raised. His voice yelling out again. “Stop! Stay where you are!”

Kurt Adler did not even flinch. With calm precision, he reached inside his coat, drew a Luger, and fired. One shot, neat and decisive. The bullet struck square in the man’s forehead. He collapsed without a cry, sprawled in the frozen mud.

Fritz gasped. Heinrich crossed himself.

Adler slid the pistol back beneath his coat. “There. No more problem. But others may have heard. We cannot linger.”

“You mean—we set it off here?” Heinrich stammered. “Outside? But this is not the spot! If we do it now—”

“The fire will still spread,” Adler cut him off. “In minutes, this whole place will be an inferno. Workers in every building will die before they can reach the gates. Our masters in Berlin will be satisfied.”

“But the device—” Fritz began.

Adler’s eyes hardened. “The device is silent. No warning. We have ten, perhaps fifteen minutes. That is enough for us to make our escape.”

With steady fingers, he knelt beside the crate, drew out the small clockwork bomb, and twisted the brass dial. A soft click. Then he depressed a lever, sealing its fate.

“It is done,” he said, rising. “Come. Quickly.”

The three men hurried down the narrow lane between buildings, boots crunching on cinders, passing the still body of the detective. Fritz dared one last glance at the dead man’s open eyes. But he knew Adler’s cold certainty allowed no hesitation. They piled into their waiting motorcar, the engine sputtering to life. Behind them, Building 30 smoldered, a thin column of smoke curling skyward.

Adler didn’t even look back. He knew within minutes, everything would go as planned, a pillar of fire and smoke visible across the Hudson River, a cataclysm that would rattle every skyscraper window in Manhattan.

Scene 2 – The Dakota Hotel

Across from Central Park

Charles Bennington pushed open the heavy oak door of his family’s fifth-floor apartment at The Dakota, brushing snow from his overcoat and removing his hat. The familiar warmth of home met him—polished wood floors, the faint aroma of coal heat and Lily’s roses in a nearby vase.

“Charles?” Lily’s voice floated from the parlor. A moment later she appeared, one hand smoothing her skirt. “You’re home already?”

He grinned, setting his hat aside. “I thought I’d steal an hour or two. Had a fine lunch with the manager of the Brevoort—came away with a contract. They’ll be buying all their ice from us now.”

Her arms were around his neck before he finished, her lips brushing his cheek. “That’s wonderful!”

“Daddy!” cried a small voice. Their son, not quite three, darted across the oriental rug, a wooden top behind him on the rug. He latched onto Charles’s leg, hugging fiercely.

Charles bent down, swept him into his arms, and kissed the boy’s tousled hair. “And how is my young man? Giving your mother any trouble today?”

“Not terribly much.” Lily laughed.

Charles adjusted his son on his hip. “I thought, since I was so close, perhaps the three of us could walk to Central Park. Watch the people ice skating. We talked of it last weekend, remember? The sun is shining, there’s almost no wind. It’s quite cold, but pleasant enough.”

Lily’s smile widened. “That sounds perfect.” She reached for the boy. “Come, Charles Jr., let’s get on your coat and mittens.”

“Skating?” the child asked, puzzled. “What is that?”

“Just wait, my boy,” Charles said, setting him down. “You’ll see soon enough.”

They were at the foyer closet, Lily fetched his small woolen coat.

Then it happened.

Like a thousand peels of thunder, all at once, roaring in from the west. The Dakota shook. The parquet floor rattled. A window in the dining room shattered inward. Lily staggered, clutching her son to her chest.

Charles lunged, catching them both before they fell. For a heartbeat all three clung together, the building groaning around them. Then the vibrating stopped.

Lily’s face was pale. “What in heaven’s name—? It sounded like—like the Black Tom explosion last summer!”

Charles’s mind raced. Yes, the memory of that dreadful July night—windows shattered throughout Manhattan, the explosion damaging even the Statue of Liberty. “This is west of us,” he said, hurrying to the window. “Not near the river this time… further inland.”

Together they stood, gazing out. Over New Jersey, a fireball bloomed in the sky, swelling into a thick pillar of black smoke.

“Those poor workers,” Lily whispered. “So many must have perished.”

Charles remembered. Seven dead with the Black Tom incident, hundreds seriously injured. “This looks even worse.”

She touched his arm. “You think it’s the Germans again?”

He didn’t answer at once, watching the smoke billowing higher, blotting out the pale winter sun. “It is too early to know. But I wouldn’t be surprised. It has the look of another munitions factory. I don’t know what else could make such an explosion.”

She drew close, holding their son tightly.

Charles kept his eyes on the rising smoke. “We may be standing at the edge of something terrible. The President has kept us out of it these last three years, but the Germans have been very loudly opposing us providing weapons and arms to the Allies. If they are bringing the war to our own shores… I don’t see how America can continue to remain apart.”

The boy squirmed in his mother’s arms, staring out the window at the scene, still too young to understand.

But Charles and Lily knew. This explosion, now the second one in less than six months, likely meant their safe, little world, along with their safe, simple routines… may have just gone up in smoke.

NOTE: Dan is hard at working researching and writing Book 3 of his Gilded Secret Series. More Details about it’s release date will come when he gets closer to finishing it.

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