JD Series

When John Daniels left for the library he expected it to be just another quiet day hunting through journals and periodicals. Then a mysterious package arrived with an impossible device inside, and John’s peaceful world vanished with the death screams of a murdered woman echoing through the library. Forced to confront the pain of his past, John had little choice but to accept an unusual mission. John lives a comfortable and quiet life. After fighting for years to reach a place where he could be in control of his own life, he has established himself as an independent researcher with the ability to pick which jobs he takes and the luxury of setting his own schedule so that he frequently finds himself at the library where his friend and high-school crush, Sarah Parrish, works as a librarian. However, that all changes the day a mysterious package from an unknown source arrives addressed to John at, of all places, the library. The device inside rips away John’s sense of control and forces him to confront the most painful parts of his past. Apart from Sarah, only his best friend, Lieutenant Kiel Samuels, knows the secrets and pain of John’s childhood. When circumstances took a seven-year-old John and his little sister, Mia, away from their mother and placed them in the foster system, they were separated. After two years apart, Mia disappeared from the schoolyard one afternoon. Having watched the strain of loss and a stalled investigation kill his mother when he was only eleven, a loss that sent him back into the foster system until he aged out at eighteen, John had finally reached a place where he could accept the likelihood that his sister was not only dead, but that he would never know what happened to her. He thought he had successfully put it behind him and moved on. But the questions, the uncertainty, and the drive for answers come roaring back to John the moment the device turns itself on and displays a video of the violent murder of an unknown young woman. With a horrified Sarah at his side, John temporarily sets aside the question of where and whom the impossible device came from and sets out to uncover the woman’s identity and find her. Trusting only Kiel and Sarah, John puts his research skills and analytical mind to the task of finding the murdered girl and bringing justice and closure to her family, two things his little sister never got. But when it turns out the murdered and missing girl is just the first of a long list of unsolved cases the device wants John to work on, he is less than pleased. John struggles to generate the same level of passion and commitment when working to free a man wrongfully imprisoned for years. Reluctant to turn his life over to what might be a never-ending mission forced on him by an apparently sentient machine and anonymous benefactor, John’s frustrations finally boil over when the prospect of discovering the truth of what happened to Mia is dangled like a carrot just out of his reach. Taking his frustrations out on the Gee device and its seemingly limitless power proves to have far-reaching consequences as John inadvertently broadcasts the device’s information in the form of an untraceable website that announces its existence to the world, dominating the news coverage for weeks, overwhelming the already strained criminal justice system, and generating a widespread search for the source of the site. John strives to keep his identity a secret with Kiel and Sarah promising to keep their mouths shut. But as events unfold and powerful, influential people endeavour to protect themselves from the fallout, John finds more than just himself in danger.

Now that John Daniels has Sarah Parrish safely by his side, their first order of business becomes rescuing the kidnapped reporter, Ben Briggs – the man who first identified John as the creator of the website that sent the whole world into chaos only a week earlier. Thanks to that very website, the still-skeptical police and volunteer searchers are also being kept apprised of Briggs’ location, forcing the criminals that have him to keep him moving from one place to another. Who will be the first to reach Briggs, and will they get to him before his inconvenienced captors decide to take more drastic measures for solving their annoying problem? If John and Sarah are able to save him, will Briggs prove cooperative or will he choose to cause even more trouble for the pair? John remains determined to continue using the GEE in pursuing his mission, and Sarah shows that she’s determined to do everything she can to help him (whether John appreciates her efforts or not). John and Sarah must figure out what they want from their evolving relationship and how to make things work while John’s mission keeps them constantly on the move and “home” becomes a string of motels and strangers’ spare rooms. Is it even possible for them to date while working to bring closure to millions of families around the world and keeping themselves out of the hands of the authorities? John turns to his close friend and inside contact with the police, Lieutenant Kiel Samuels, for advice and a sense of something familiar. It turns out Kiel has a bit more experience with the subject than John first realized. And while it is true that Sarah trusts John with her life, does she really trust the GEE? And if she can’t, what will that mean for her relationship with John? Will John be forced to choose between a future with Sarah and answers about the past and what happened to his younger sister, Mia? Their encounters with people along their way help them learn about themselves, what they really mean to each other, and the future they hope to build together. Even as they struggle to establish a new sense of normalcy, forces begin gathering in the shadows with sinister purposes. Adelaide Furson is more than just impressed with the GEE and the website even as they threaten to put her directly into the hands of the authorities. While she may not know everything the device is capable of accomplishing, she has more than a few ideas that she’d like to have the opportunity to try. In order to secure that opportunity for herself, however, she must first manage to get her hands on the GEE, which also means facing the improbable task of getting it away from a vigilant John. Adelaide quickly decides that she’s up for the challenge. But how do you go about stealing a device when it knows you’re coming before you even get close? Adelaide’s determination and cunning are put to the test as she plots and cons her way closer and closer to an unsuspecting John and Sarah. Will Adelaide succeed with her plots or will someone else – someone worse – get there before she can? Can John protect both Sarah and the GEE when he doesn’t know what’s coming?

John Daniels is distraught over the loss of the GEE. It was clearly stolen, but who could have taken it? Why? And most importantly, how? Convinced that it is his fault in more ways than one, the last thing he wants to deal with is meeting Lieutenant Kiel Samuels’ newly-rescued girlfriend, Alison. Explaining that he is JD—yes, that JD—and answering questions about the mission he has undertaken will be a complete waste of time—especially since explaining is so much harder to do without the GEE. Explaining to his best friend what happened to the GEE proves equally unappealing. As the repercussions of his loss begin to appear in a fresh media storm, his despair grows. Sarah Parrish is worried about her boyfriend. John has faced challenges before, but the depths of his despair over the missing GEE surprises and scares her. Luckily, she has gotten pretty good at avoiding her own fears by focusing her energy on helping John overcome his. Sarah aims to get John back on his feet by helping him to realize that he can investigate cases, find answers, and bring closure to families without relying on the GEE as his primary resource; it may take him more time, but if he is willing to put in the extra effort, there is no reason she sees for why he cannot continue. She just needs to find the right case for him to work on. But will her efforts lift John from his misery, or will his determined pessimism prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy? Elsewhere, Adelaide Furson celebrates her recent victory, bringing the GEE with her to a remote cabin in the woods where she can have privacy and take her time bending the GEE to her will. She decides that her first order of business will be erasing all cases connected to her from the GEE website and gifting herself a fresh start—thankfully, none of the cases have been opened to the public yet. After that, she will thoroughly enjoy using it against her enemies to pad her bank account. However, from the moment she arrives at the cabin, things begin happening—strange and unsettling things that leave her questioning herself. Her frustration builds as she also discovers the GEE is not as simple a device as she originally thought. As events begin to get further out of Adelaide’s control, she comes to the conclusion that she is going to need to bring someone in for help—and that the price of a new start may turn out to be her sanity. Unbeknownst to John and Sarah (and Adelaide), the group Ryder Trenton warned them about has been gathering in the shadows. They are zeroing in on the GEE and have plenty of ideas for what to do with the GEE—all of them nefarious, though they prefer to think of them as necessary evils. Fueled by deep pockets and—temporarily—a common purpose, they dispatch an elite team of skilled operatives to retrieve the GEE and neutralize the threat John poses. In the race to recover the GEE, who will triumph and who will fall along the way?