From the back cover

Every kid has parents who embarrass them on occasion, but Gabrielle Jordan has more to complain about than most. Her mother, paleontologist Professor Julia Jordan, has dragged her around the world for most of her sixteen years searching for proof of her bizarre—and embarrassing—theory, that creatures of myth and legend existed 50,000 years ago during the glaciation. As for Gabrielle’s father, Russell Anderson, well, he’s in an asylum for the criminally insane, claiming to be possessed by a demon named Abaddon, which turned him from a mild-mannered scientist into a serial killer.

For Gabrielle, the dawning realization that her mother might not be chasing rainbows and her father really isn’t insane is one fraught with danger, adventure, and romance. It will lead her from Rhode Island to the Australian Outback and the distant past of 50,000 years ago, into a world filled with mythical creatures.

This groundbreaking fantasy series is a gripping paranormal roller-coaster ride.  The dangerous Australian continent during the last Glacial Epoch intersects seamlessly with the contemporary world as Gabrielle discovers her ability to jump across time, drawn to the moment that set her—and the warring immortals she is descended from—on this path to apocalyptic oblivion.

As Gabrielle struggles to unlock the secrets of her birthright, she will learn that lies often hide truths, friends can be deadlier than enemies, and betrayal is not always what it seems.

Author’s notes

In 2005, while I was writing a short time travel story for Stargate, I had an idea for a young adult story. It was a simple premise. What if creatures of myth and legend roamed Earth during the Pleistocene glaciation? Palaeontologists find fossils of extinct creatures all the time, and some of them are as close to dragons as you can imagine. Like Megalania, a giant goanna the size of a bus. It didn’t breath fire, but its saliva burned like acid, and there’s no doubt it hunted people. Now, take a pinch of time travel, add a dollop of warring immortals, and suddenly I was fleshing out (pardon the pun) The Bone Menagerie. The book is now out of print and, like Ark Ship, is one of those stories that if I ever have some free time, I may revisit with a sequel.