All artwork by B.R. O’Hagan

Demetria Carnál                                        Demetria is the legendary leader of a band of highly trained brigands who operate in New Mexico Terrritory. Known as the “Bandit Princess,” her exploits robbing trains, freight warehouses and wagon trains made her a household name. An expert horsewoman who is adept with pistols and knives, her sharp wit and unflappable command presence earned the respect of friends and foes alike. Thomas meets Demetria in Scoundrel in the Thick at her isolated mountaintop villa headquarters.

Dawn Pillow                                                    When Thomas is almost beaten to death and then thrown into a deep ravine by the hired guns of a powerful Colorado cattle baron, he is found by a wandering frontier preacher and carried to the Cheyenne village of Chief Red Elk. The Chief’s daughter is Dawn Pillow, a native healer who uses traditional medicines and herbs to save Thomas’ life. When Red Elk learns that more than healing is going on in Dawn Pillow’s teepee, he punishes Thomas with a scar he will carry for life.

Keani                                                                       Deaf and mute since birth, Keani learned sign language and reading at missionary schools on Tahiti and played an important role in the life of her village. She is expert at spearfishing and handling outrigger canoes. She and Thomas leave together for the neighboring island of Moorea, where they build a cabin on a cove at the water’s edge. Bookquest calls their relationship the “most beautiful love story we have read in decades. A true American classic.”

The Three Sirens                                                 In Greek mythology, the Sirens wielded their intoxicating beauty and hypnotic voices to ensnare hapless sailors and drag them to their doom in the ocean's depths. Echoing this peril in Passage to Moorea, Thomas is flung from his fragile skiff into the bone-chilling sea. Exhausted to his core and near drowning, he teeters on the edge of oblivion, perilously close to yielding to their lethal serenade.

Annette Lescoux                                          Thomas has plans for an intimate fireside finale to his dinner with the charming Annette at Delmonico’s in NYC, but a champagne cork gone wildly astray and an urgent telegram from Mexico City change the course of his evening- and his his life. From the first Thomas Scoundrel novel,Scoundrel in the Thick.

Heléne de Bovet Egyptian art expert, translator, and explorer. Thomas meets her onboard the luxurious Orient Express between Vienna and Istanbul, where she is going to learn the whereabouts of her famous Egyptologist father, who disappeared from a dig in the Valley of the Kings. Together with Thomas and their Bedouin guide, Samhi, Heléne battles corrupt antiquities dealers, desert warrior lords, and the great Sahara itself.

Nurse Angela                                                Thomas is seriously wounded at the battle of Pebble Creek Ridge in the closing days of the Civil War. He is taken to Mt. Pleasant Military Hospital outside Washington, DC, where his day nurse is the famous American poet Walt Whitman. At night he is cared for by Angela, a young widow whose emotional wounds are as deep as Thomas’ physical injuries. Over the weeks of his convalescence, Angela and Thomas look to one another for healing.

Cabaret Dancer, Café Le Chat Noir, Paris, 1884 This café was the center of night life for the artists and musicians of Paris in 1884. Absinthe and wine flowed freely, entertainers whirled between the tightly packed tables, and famous raconteurs including Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh made it their second home-when they could afford the price of a bottle, that is. This lovely woman tells (or rather, shows) Thomas the scandalous story behind the café’s name…and that is an entertaining tale on its own.