Flight of the Hornbill (The Third Ray Sharp Novel)

Gold, a lot of it, has been discovered in the oil rich tropics of Sumatra. Or has it? From an American suburb incongruously set into a jungle clearing, to the sleazy bars of Jakarta; from a neighborhood floating on a river, to the dense, steaming rainforest; corporate investigator Ray Sharp's job is to ferret out the truth.

Why does a Frenchman want to kill Ray? Who's been shoved out of a helicopter, and why? What's Ray's ex-wife, and her boyfriend, got to do with it?

Loosely (very) based on the facts of the Bre-X gold fraud of 1997, Flight of the Hornbill is a thrill ride through an exotic Asian landscape

I'm a second generation Los Angeleno who loves the big, sprawling, dirty urban mishmash I call home. I'm also one of the few people on the planet who loves Jakarta, Indonesia, which in its own way is similar to Los Angeles, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt or not.

For the better part of 30 years I've worked as a writer, photographer, editor, publisher and publishing consultant. As a writer I've covered a wide range of topics, including business, economics, finance, politics, arts, culture, sports, travel and I once even wrote an advice to the lovelorn column for a bi-lingual English and Chinese fashion magazine. At the moment I'm writing books, both fiction and non-fiction, and the occasional magazine article.

I spent 11 years living in Asia, based in Hong Kong, then Jakarta, but always traveling a great deal for both work and fun.

Now I live high on a hill in Silverlake, my favorite Los Angeles neighborhood, with Eva, the woman I love. Our house is a short walk, or no more than a 25 minute drive from restaurants, markets, shops and whole communities that represent almost every country on Earth. It's a good thing I cook though because I still haven't found a really good Indonesian restaurant.