Avery McShane and the Silver Spurs (Book 1)
Hi! My name is Avery McShane. I live smack dab in the middle of nowhere in Venezuela. My best friends are Billy, Todd, Carlitos and my dog, Mati.
Our adventures started when the bad guy Pablo Malo caught us trespassing and shot Todd in the butt with his shotgun loaded with rock salt. That was bad enough, but when Pablo went and trashed our jungle clubhouse up in the huge mango tree, we decided to fight back. This was war!
From then on everything got a mite out of control! Things got blown up, folks got kidnapped and there was a heckuva lot more gunplay - just like in my favorite western movies.
Looking back, it was a pretty cool adventure, so that's why I've told the story. I really hope you like it!
*****
"What an exciting read!
The story follows Avery McShane, young American ex-pat living in the jungles of Venezuela on a camp run by an oil company with his family. Avery, his dog and best mates, Todd and Billy, get up to all kinds of mischief and danger. When a gaucho is found dead near Campo Mata, the boys do some investigations of their own, and discover a dangerous villain in the form of Pablo Malo and his vicious dog Loca.
Filled with a little gore, a lot of danger, steamy jungles and pre-teen angst, this book is sure to engage the fussy 9-13 boy reader. I recommend it! "
— Nicola Sheridan, Author
Avery McShane and the Lost Tepui (Book 2)
Well, it happened again, this time in the middle of the darkest, deepest jungles of Venezuela.
It all started when me and my best friends Billy, Todd, and Carlitos got kidnapped for ransom by some diamond smugglers while we were fishing on the Orinoco River. To make matters worse, the leader of the gang was Roberto Malo, and he was going to torture us and then throw us to the gators for what we did to his brother back in Campo Mata.
We just barely escaped and made a beeline for the mysterious cliffs of the Lost Tepui. We hid in caves under waterfalls, blew up some things, got shot at, fought off a huge snake, and got caught in a huge flood.
And when it was all over, we'd even added a new member to our super exclusive club we call the Machacas. Sure hope you like reading about this latest adventure of ours.
*****
"This tightly written adventure is full of pace, action and tension with a gentle sprinkling of humour. Lyons wonderfully evokes the exotic environs of a South American rainforest.”
— Kieran Fanning, for 'INIS - The Children's Books Ireland Magazine' (August 2012 Issue)"
"Plenty of action and adventure; an exotic setting; well-drawn characters and a plucky, engaging hero, make this a page-turner - with a decidedly dangerous edge."
— Review by BOOK TRUST, Inspiring a Love of Books.
Avery McShane and the Voodoo Witch (Book 3)
It seems like we Machacas couldn't go on a vacation without something bad happening, and our sailing trip to Trinidad was no different.
While our parents slept on the beach one night, we kids were accidentally kidnapped by a gang of Jamaican pirates who were stealing our sailboat without realizing we were onboard.
When we heard them say that they'd be going back to nab our moms, and kill our dads, we knew this meant war!
We managed to get back to our parents, but not before I'd had to hide in a scary old pirate cemetery at night, had a run in with a voodoo witch, and watched a man being burned alive. We even had time to blow up a sailboat, get in a gun fight with the pirates and finally meet up with the pirate leader face-to-face.
I'm still alive to tell the story, but it was sure-as-shootin' a close call. Hope you like this latest crazy adventure of ours.
