The Acid Diary
A tale of murder, conspiracy, and hallucination set during 1967's Summer of Love. A fast-paced historical thriller.
San Francisco, 1967: It's autumn, and the Summer of Love is over. The hippies have drifted to rural communes while a rash of bad drugs and runaways taints the Haight Ashbury neighborhood. Then comes the grisly murder of a drug dealer. A swift arrest and conviction follow. Few notice.
Except for Evan Dunne. His brother's drug-related murder in the Haight comes as a shock. His brother didn't fit the mold of a dealer. He was a husband, a father, a straight arrow. The killer can't even recall the crime. Nothing adds up.
Then Evan discovers his late brother's diary. The journal describes a grand conspiracy against the counter culture that might have precipitated the bizarre murder.
With Haight Street decaying around him and the Vietnam War looming in his future and shadowy men seeking the diary, Evan risks his life to expose the alarming conspiracy.
In this fast-paced historical thriller, Dan Spencer delves into the celebrated Summer of Love to show how the Sixties blurred the line between hallucination and reality.
"...the author was willing to go well beyond the standard formula found in most thrillers...
The writing is fast paced, but the overall story is never sacrificed for the sake of a cheap ploy
to advance the book... I could almost feel the emotions coming off the page!"
Rebecca's Reads
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Rule of Existence
A New England doctor searches for his missing daughter in Philadelphia at the height of the 1918 influenza epidemic.
Times are fateful for Dr. Burton Reinhardt. The First World War rages overseas. An epidemic grips America. Army recruits are dying from a strange disease before they even leave boot camp, and medics like Burton are helpless to cure them. Then, when Burton learns that mysterious circumstances have befallen his family, an adventure begins.
The influenza outbreak of 1918 sets off this fast-paced novel about an unorthodox physician's search for his missing daughter and the government agent intent on bringing him to justice for a questionable crime. The trail leads to Philadelphia, a city overwhelmed by flu-related deaths. Fearing for his daughter's safety while ignoring his own, Burton scours the unfamiliar metropolis, evades the lawman, and grapples with a deadly plague.
"a good brisk read about a perilous time."
BNN Book Reviews
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All Eyes Skyward
Love, danger, and deception during the Berlin Airlift.
Three years after the end of WWII, Greta Ludke, a comely young German mother with a meek daughter, struggles for survival by selling wares on Berlin's perilous black market.
When the Soviets blockade the divided city as part of a ruthless political ploy, Berlin's citizens become pawns in an international chess match. But American and British flyers come to their aid with an airlift unlike anything ever conceived, bringing hope to the besieged city.
Greta finds an unlikely personal savior in Lt. Tucker Briggs, a guileless U.S. Air Force pilot assigned to the airlift. The young lieutenant's passion for her spurs him through the long, tedious mission. But as cruel fate would have it, Tucker must fly nearly every waking hour for months, so his visits with Greta are brief yet filled with hope and promise. Though dangers loom - kidnapping, starvation, violence, and the chance of another horrifying war - Greta escapes into pleasant dreams of a new life with her American admirer. But her questionable past, Tucker's naivete, and Berlin's nerve-wracking political tensions conspire against Greta's longing for love and salvation.
Brimming with rich characters and carefully researched to reflect the historic era, Dan Spencer's novel sends readers back to a nearly forgotten time of one of the world's greatest non-violent military actions.
"Stayed up till five a.m. reading the book. Couldn't put it down. It's honest and believable and moving and ingenious... Also, the subject is one that comes as a surprise and an eye-opener, in the way it informs and holds the reader."
Lillian Ross, author of Here But Not Here and Picture
Loop the Loop
A sweeping historical adventure set during the pre-WWI era of aeroplane daredevils.
The year is 1912, the height of the Progressive Era, and America is literally taking flight. It's the heyday of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and stunt flyer Lincoln Beachey. The movie business is sprouting in Los Angeles. War is brewing in Europe. Airplanes capture the world's imagination. Then out of the blue comes Herkimer Dawes, the circumspect adventurer of Dan Spencer's spirited novel.
Raised wealthy and stubborn, Herkimer shuns the family soap-making business to fly airplanes, the new international phenomenon. California beckons. He travels to San Diego to learn aeronautics and there he meets seductive Eloise, an actress who turns his life topsy-turvy. In no time, Herkimer enters the high-paying ranks of professional exhibition stunt flyers. A natural born aviator if there ever was one, he devises an aerial act that brings elan to an otherwise reckless profession. But the public reacts tepidly to his talent. They prefer the outrageously dangerous antics of master birdman Lincoln Beachey. His death-defying stunts thrill the world and rile his competitors.
Thus a rivalry is born between Herkimer Dawes and the much-ballyhooed Beachey. Herkimer vows to outclass the fabled flyer. Even if he dies trying.
"an atmospheric novel... a soaring story
of the life and times of a bygone era."
Rebecca Reads
Four Wheels Good
The adventure of the first men to drive automobiles across America.
In 1903, the Packard Motor Car Company hired foreman Tom Fetch to drive an automobile across the United States from San Francisco to New York City, a feat never before achieved.
Fetch and two companions - an elderly reporter and a rebellious mechanic - faced numerous obstacles; deserts, mountains, mud, unpredictable weather, the scarcity of gasoline, the lack of roads west of Denver, and the jeers of folks who dismissed automobiles as playthings of the rich.
And Fetch wasn't alone in the attempt. Another motorist had left San Francisco to travel overland on a dare. It became an unofficial race to reach New York first.
But the competition had a three-week head start.
In Four Wheels Good, his first novel, Dan Spencer presents a grand tale of daring and humility, triumph and disappointment, and the true meaning of success.
"This is a sophisticated piece."
Writers Digest
"...an excellently crafted historical fiction... a highly enjoyable read."
Midwest Book Review
