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ur current titles include Windfall Nights, The Cocaspore Project, The House Beneath the Damen Off-Ramp, and The Rice Thieves. All authored by William Claypool, an experienced screen play writer who has published many works in the industries of science and biotech.
Synopsis:
Windfall Nights tells a story of coming of age and redemption. Following a devastating car accident, Julian returns to college a semester behind. Now a fifth-year senior, he struggles to make ends meet. To help finance his final semester, he applies for a job as a night bellman at a second-rate hotel. There he meets a cast of interesting characters and Thomas, the man who would change Julian's life forever. Thomas is the hotel handyman, and Julian soon learns that a dark secret haunts his new friend. Thomas, once a college football star, dropped out of sight at the height of his sports career. There are mutterings of academic fraud and trouble with women, but Thomas conceals his past. Bonding over shared vulnerabilities, the two young men become close friends. While their friendship grows, Julian begins to understand Thomas's remarkable gifts as well as the terrible demons he carries. The peace of his world is broken as Julian approaches his college graduation. Although Julian and Thomas move apart, they eventually meet again on the streets of Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, Julian pursues his career as a journalist and Thomas follows his destiny in a way that Julian will need a lifetime to understand.
Synopsis:
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Dr. Paul Sloan, a brilliant academic botanist, has developed a technology that will eradicate the coca plant. Supported by several US Government agencies, he naively believes that the only obstacles to his success lay in the nuances of biotechnology. He could not be more wrong. Dr. Sloan's harrowing journey begins in Washington DC and continues in Chicago where he, his family and staff are in mortal danger. Sloan has the support of an admiral in Washington DC but his true protector is Michael Franco, a career Navy officer, who has been placed in Chicago, unbeknownst to Sloan. Although Franco is motivated by an unfailing dedication to duty, he begins to question his commitment and his ability to handle the assignment. He soon realizes that he is facing both an unknown spy and the drug lord Don Ricardo, whose ruthless thugs are waiting to destroy Sloan and all his work. In this mortal game of cat and mouse, Franco is up against a clock. Don Ricardo is set to strike before Franco can expose the traitor and get much needed backup. As this thriller concludes, all of Franco's courage and skill are put to a final test at the hands of Don Ricardo. The unexpected conclusion will surprise even the most veteran of "thriller " readers.
Synopsis:
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The House Beneath the Damen Off-Ramp is set on the gritty west side of Chicago.
It is a tale of suspense and human frailty. As the story begins, the reader is introduced to a young boy of about five, the third of six children, living in poverty. The boy is almost entirely deaf due to neglect of his chronic ear infections. He communicates to his mother and siblings through a combination of signing and monosyllabic words that are often difficult to decipher by his family, and impossible to understand by outsiders. He lives in constant fear of his mother's boyfriend, a violent character who has repeatedly abused the family. As the story opens, the boyfriend has just entered the family's apartment.
The young boy sees the boyfriend and quickly retreats to safety within a secret space he has created in the void between two walls of the apartment. While hiding, he feels disturbing vibrations around him and becomes even more alarmed. When he finally emerges from his hiding spot, he discovers that his family has been murdered and he is left alone with their lifeless bodies. Despite the horror all around him, the boy is relieved to see that the boyfriend is gone. He struggles to understand what has happened, all the while terrified of the boyfriend's return. Overwhelmed with loss and terror, the child flees the apartment into the rainy night.
Fate intervenes to help the lost, speechless boy in the person of JJ Jefferson, a native Chicagoan who's been living the good life in sunny West Palm. Jefferson has returned to his hometown on an annual pilgrimage back to his roots, focusing on visiting a wild cast of characters from his high school days, which includes a cop, a priest, a disabled jockey, and JJ's on again/off again girlfriend.
JJ is a successful businessman, yet a little eccentric. He prefers to camp out in a shack beneath the Stevenson Expressway when visiting, rather than bunk with friends. He sees this experience as a way to reconnect to his humble yet rough upbringing, and to hone the survival skills he learned in the military. It's beneath this highway off-ramp that JJ stumbles across the bloodstained boy crouching behind a pillar. While definitely not in JJ's plan, he becomes the boy's reluctant protector.
JJ assumes the role of overnight guardian until he can deliver the young boy to theauthorities. However, by the following morning everything changes, including JJ's intentions. The action moves quickly over the next few days as JJ's colorful friends are enlisted to help him protect the young boy, all of them unaware of the peril that threatens them by aiding the helpless child.
Time is of the essence as JJ searches for a way to communicate with the boy and gain his trust so that he can determine who he is and how he came to be covered in blood. To what lengths will JJ and his friends go to protect the boy? Duty and morality clash while the hunt is on for the killer in this modern story of truth and consequence.
Synopsis:
In The Rice Thieves, two Hong Kong nationals scheme to steal the seeds of a remarkable experimental strain of rice from a U. S. Department of Agriculture facility in Hawaii. Experienced in pirating western technology, the thieves successfully smuggle the stolen seeds to Hong Kong. The rice, developed by a U.S. agriculture technology company, grows faster and produces more rice than standard seeds. The thieves know these "super" seeds will result in amazing fortunes for them in China. Using their government connections, they gain rapid access to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, which is under severe pressure to ensure that domestic rice production quotas are satisfied.
When the seed theft is discovered in Hawaii, a team consisting of two U.S. government agents and two U.S. civilians is assembled to identify who has stolen the super rice seeds and to determine the extent of its cultivation in China. The team travels from Hawaii to Hong Kong to track down the thieves and follow the trail of the smuggled rice. What the team comes to learn is that this simple theft is anything but simple and that this agricultural espionage may have serious global consequences.
The Rice Thieves will appeal to readers who enjoy a fast paced storyline and geopolitical suspense. Several of the main characters in The Rice Thieves will be familiar to readers from William Claypool's earlier novel, The Cocaspore Project.
