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St. John Author in Running to Win Amazon.com Contest

Jeff Signing Book

After self-publishing a nautical mystery novel based on St. John, Jeffrey Roswell McCord entered it into the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. He’s already beat out more than 9,500 novels, but he needs all of our help to beat out the final 500. Here are the details…

“St. John, its sailing community, and the Virgin Islands’ history and culture inspired me to write Undocumented Visitors in a Pirate Sea,” Jeff said Thursday.

Undocumented Visitors in a Pirate Sea is about a dead Marine who washes ashore on St. John and leads investigators to otherworldly perpetrators in historic pirate waters and high level abuses in Washington. Intrepid maritime historian Thayer Harris, Ph.D, working the case for U.S. Naval Intelligence, discovers a 60-year record of extraterrestrial activity in the Caribbean basin. History and national security politics meet science fiction in this mystery based on exhaustive factual research and informed conjecture.

Jeff self-published the novel independently through Kindle and Amazon’s paperback printing company Create Space. Earlier this year, he entered it in the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Ten thousand books were entered and so far his book has made it through two cuts. It’s now a quarter-finalist, having beaten 9,500 other books. The next cut to semi-finalists will be made in the period May 23 through June 13, which is why he needs our help.

Part of the judging process is customer reactions and ratings of the book. We can all help by downloading the Kindle version of the book and rating it … sooner than later of course.

The book is available on Kindle for only $4.99. Click here to purchase it. 

For those of you who prefer paperbacks, you can purchase that on Amazon by clicking here. It is also available on island at Papaya Cafe, Tall Ships Trading Company at Shipwreck Landing in Coral Bay and St. John Spice.

I don’t know about all of you, but I think this sounds like a pretty neat little book. Here’s its full description:

jeffs book

A dead Marine washed ashore on St. John’s Privateer Bay has a flying saucer and the letters “JFK” tattooed on his chest. With Vietnam War-era dog tags as the corpse’s only identity, local police contact the U.S. Navy. Some in Washington are uneasy about retired Gunnery Sergeant Roger Baskins’ death and tats.

A U.S. Naval Intelligence officer contacts the hero, maritime historian Thayer Harris, PhD, who is a tenured university professor at the fictional Territorial College of the Virgin Islands. He resides with his wife and son on St John. The Navy hires Dr. Harris to secretly investigate the death of Gunny Baskins. He uncovers a 60-year record of UFO activity in the Caribbean basin in the process. His discoveries of phenomenal events during the Cuban Missile Crisis, on Grenada and in other times and places raise questions the professor can’t answer.

With Dr. Harris’ sleuthing nearly complete, the true adventure begins with his dramatic phenomenal encounter at sea in his sailboat in VI waters. Following his report to Naval Intelligence in DC, Dr. Harris is targeted by other security agencies and parties who want his information. A life and death confrontation unfolds in Coral Bay.

Drawing on such credible sources as U.S. Navy records, declassified British and Russian UFO reports, the testimony of Navy personnel and the first Prime Minister of Grenada, “Undocumented Visitors in a Pirate Sea” weaves a thrilling fictional tale out of historical and scientific threads.