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A model railroad sits inside Jim Peters's cabin at Turtle Lake, complete with buildings, roads, bridges, cars, and trucks. It looks like a hobby. It is actually a model of a crime scene that has not happened yet. That detail establishes the peculiar machinery behind Bob Milne's Turtle Lake: a crime thriller in which careful observation, ordinary objects, and lessons drawn from predators in the natural world become part of an elaborate plan.

Peters is not plotting for money alone. As comptroller at Ramsey Motors, he has uncovered a scheme involving the company and its insurer, U.S. Underwriters, that threatens employees' retirement and insurance benefits before operations move overseas. His response is an extortion plot designed to expose the corruption and protect those employees—a plan ambitious enough to eventually make national headlines. With its September 7, 2026 publication approaching, today's teaser offers an early look at how that scheme begins to take shape.

The premise of Turtle Lake turns corporate wrongdoing into a problem its protagonist intends to solve through strategy rather than conventional heroics. Jim Peters is a comptroller, and the materials supplied for the book emphasize that his plan depends on simple, everyday methods. The intriguing complication is where he finds part of his tactical inspiration: the behavior of alpha predators.

 

That relationship between human calculation and animal instinct gives the thriller its distinctive angle. The opening excerpt moves deliberately through carnivores, prey, birds, frogs, insects, and humans before revealing Peters studying a miniature representation of the crime scene he intends to create. Nature is not merely scenery surrounding Turtle Lake; observation of it appears woven into the way Peters understands behavior and prepares his scheme.

 

There is also an uncomfortable moral tension built into the premise. Peters is responding to a plan that would harm employees, yet his answer is extortion and a carefully engineered crime of his own. That collision between motive and method gives readers more to consider than whether his elaborate plan will succeed.

Life is a dangerous place to be. The woods, skies, lakes, and oceans are filled with creatures bent on killing and eating each other. Nothing in nature dies of old age, as the adage goes.

 

Prey animals are taken down by predators. It’s as if prey animals are made to be food.

 

Carnivore predators possess razor-sharp canine-like teeth. Carnivores are the watchers from the shadows. All of them, such as lions, tigers, bobcats, and wolves, are wired the same way. They don’t eat lettuce for lunch. To a carnivore, you simply look like another rabbit in the grass.

 

There’s another carnivore that is often overlooked – humans. Humans have canine teeth. They are born wired with the same instincts as the alpha predators.

 

We’re taught to control it. Supposedly.

 

Birds will tell you when the sun is going to come up. At the faintest glimmer of dawn's early light, they begin to converse with each other, presumably to find out where the bugs are that day. Usually, we don't hear them in their earliness. Our day starts later. Usually.

 

Frogs and insects do the same during the pre-dawn moments, buzzing and croaking in the woods, fields, and swamps. Presumably they do this to find out where the predators are. It's been said that frogs might be telling each other where the rattlesnakes and blue herons are at any given time. We don't usually hear them croaking away in the early hours of the day. Usually.

 

Today, however, as the woods came to life with this early morning serenade, Jim Peters could hear them very clearly. It was August of 1990. He was in his cabin in mid-Michigan, situated on the edge of a quiet, deep-woods nature refuge known as Turtle Lake. Peters was lying in bed backwards, that is, with his feet at the head of the bed and his head at the foot of the bed, chin resting on his wrists as he looked at a model train set.

 

The train set, an ancient Lionel from the 1940s, included buildings, roads, bridges, cars, trucks, a shopping center, and a train running through it. The set looked ordinary enough to the casual passerby or rare visitor to the cabin. But in fact, it was window dressing, a model of the crime scene that was to come. The train had nothing to do with it.

 

In a short while, when the birds, frogs, and bugs had quieted down, Peters would push a button and Mozart's opera The Magic Flute would float from the speakers connected to his compact disc machine. Peters liked Mozart. The music was pure and uncluttered. It flowed from one section into another so smoothly that it was hard to tell a transition had taken place. The complexities of its composition flowed as smoothly as pouring oil.

 

As smoothly as the diabolical scam he was planning.

Turtle Lake should interest crime and suspense readers who enjoy watching a complicated scheme develop piece by piece, particularly when the person orchestrating it occupies morally uncertain ground. Jim Peters's background as a comptroller also makes this a different sort of setup from a thriller driven by a detective, professional criminal, or action hero.

 

Readers fascinated by animal behavior and the parallels people draw between human conduct and the natural world have another reason to take notice. Peters treats predator behavior as useful information, while the excerpt establishes Turtle Lake's woods and wildlife as part of the story's thinking about instinct, danger, and survival. The 1990 Michigan setting, corporate corruption plot, and meticulously planned extortion scheme round out a combination suited to readers who prefer suspense built around observation and strategy.

Bob Milne has been hailed throughout his 60-year career as one of the best ragtime/boogie-woogie piano players of all time. A solo concert performer, he traveled all over the world playing for dignitaries and celebrities as well as small town audiences. He was given the title of National Treasure by the Library of Congress and deemed an Ambassador of Music by the U.S. Department of State.

 

Bob’s extraordinary musical abilities were the subject of numerous brain studies, which have inspired a popular RadioLab podcast.

 

Little did they know that Bob was also a talented writer.

 

For years he wrote articles about his saloon-playing days for music publications. Many of these stories were compiled into a book called The Journeyman Piano Player: Adventures in Gracious Dining. Bob has written reams of poetry, some of which became lyrics to songs that he composed. The longest piece of poetry he ever wrote was the lyric book for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a grand opera he composed and orchestrated.

 

Mr. Milne has been fascinated by nature his entire life. At a young age he realized that instincts are present in all species of birds, mammals (including humans), and literally every living thing in nature. He has used this information countless times over his lifetime to predict what the human species will do in future situations.

 

Bob is now retired from the long piano tours and is enjoying his woodland home. Today he spends his time studying nature in the woods. Signed copies of his book may be purchased through his website.

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A comptroller studying a model railroad while the Michigan woods wake around him is an unexpectedly quiet starting point for a scheme destined for national attention. Yet that contrast appears central to Turtle Lake. Jim Peters is watching, arranging, and anticipating—behaviors that echo the author's recurring interest in how creatures, including humans, respond to their surroundings.

 

The larger question is what happens when Peters applies those observations to people who have power, money, and their own reasons to protect themselves. His goal may be to defend employees from a corrupt scheme, but the method he chooses puts him firmly inside dangerous territory. For suspense readers, that makes the approaching September release worth watching: the outcome depends not simply on executing a plan, but on whether Peters understands human predators as well as he thinks he does.

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At the center of The Baal of Shangisha is a difficult idea for a young hero to carry: that a divided world might still be changed. Chetanna begins with that hope, but O. Mez builds his quest around what happens when conviction is stripped of its supports. Companions abandon him, survival becomes uncertain, and the destination he has sacrificed to reach holds a truth capable of undoing the purpose that brought him there.

 

The result is a middle-grade fantasy adventure in which the quest matters for more than reaching a distant place. Armed with a slingshot, his mother's mysterious clue, and the ancient power of the Eight, Chetanna must discover how much of his dream can survive betrayal, isolation, and the possibility that what he believes may not be enough.

One boy. One impossible dream. One journey that could change his world forever.

 

When a mysterious force hurls young Chetanna into the home of an enigmatic old bird, he arrives carrying an extraordinary dream: to bring peace to the wicked and divided world around him.

 

Even Chetanna is unsure such peace is possible.

 

But when his mother tells him of a distant land of possibilities—a place where hidden answers may be found—Chetanna finally sees a path forward. As darkness spreads across the island he calls home, he begins a dangerous quest armed with only a slingshot, a mysterious name whispered by his mother, and the ancient power of the Eight.

 

Chetanna believes that courage, hope, and determination will be enough to complete his mission.

 

He is wrong.

 

Halfway through the journey, betrayal changes everything. The companions he trusted most abandon him, convinced that the quest is doomed. Left for dead and stranded in an unforgiving wilderness, Chetanna loses nearly everything he depended upon.

 

He should turn back.

 

He should surrender.

 

Instead, he holds tightly to the one thing no enemy can take from him: his dream of creating a better world.

 

 

Driven by resilience, courage, kindness, and an unshakable belief in what might still be possible, Chetanna presses forward. But when he finally reaches the legendary land he has risked everything to find, a devastating truth awaits—one powerful enough to destroy his mission and shatter everything he believes.

The Baal of Shangisha is a lyrical middle-grade fantasy adventure filled with mystery, ancient power, dangerous choices, unexpected betrayal, and unforgettable lessons about hope, sacrifice, selflessness, and perseverance.

 

Blending atmospheric storytelling, African cultural echoes, and timeless themes, O. Mez delivers a powerful debut novel for young readers who believe that courage is not the absence of fear—but the decision to keep moving forward.

 

How far would you go to save your world when everyone else has stopped believing?

 

Begin Chetanna’s unforgettable journey in The Baal of Shangisha today.

Chetanna's quest begins with an unusually large ambition for a young protagonist: he wants to bring peace to a world described as both wicked and divided. That gives the adventure a moral question alongside its physical dangers. His slingshot, his mother's whispered clue, and the ancient power of the Eight may help him travel forward, but none can guarantee that the world will become what he hopes it can be.

 

The betrayal at the midpoint makes that distinction especially important. Once his companions abandon him and he loses nearly everything he has relied upon, perseverance becomes more than a lesson attached to the story; it becomes the test on which Chetanna's entire mission depends. The promised revelation at the end of the journey adds another complication: reaching the destination does not necessarily mean finding the answer he wants.

 

O. Mez also brings African cultural echoes into the fantasy's atmosphere and imaginative world, giving Chetanna's adventure a cultural foundation connected to the storytelling traditions that shaped the author's own work.

The Baal of Shangisha belongs on the radar of young fantasy readers who like quests in which the hero's character is tested as severely as his ability to survive. Chetanna must contend with an endangered homeland, an unforgiving wilderness, betrayal by trusted companions, ancient power, and a destination that may challenge the very belief that sent him searching for it.

 

It should also appeal to families and educators interested in fantasy that opens space for conversations about perseverance, kindness, sacrifice, forgiveness, and what it means to continue pursuing a worthwhile goal after other people stop believing in it. The African cultural echoes described in the book and author's materials offer an additional point of interest for readers who enjoy fantasy shaped by cultural traditions beyond the settings most familiar in the genre.

O. Mez is a Nigerian-born author whose storytelling is shaped by the rich oral traditions, cultural rhythms, and imaginative tales that surrounded him while growing up. Inspired by stories passed down through generations, he writes lyrical, atmospheric fantasy that explores courage, resilience, hope, and the quiet strength of those who dare to believe in a better world.

 

Now based in Colorado, Mez brings together African cultural echoes, timeless life lessons, and immersive fantasy adventure to create meaningful stories for young readers. His debut middle-grade fantasy novel, The Baal of Shangisha, follows a young hero on a dangerous quest filled with mystery, betrayal, ancient power, and the unshakable determination to change his world.

 

Through his writing, Mez hopes to encourage children to embrace kindness, perseverance, selflessness, and the belief that even the smallest voice can make a lasting difference.

 

When he is not writing, he enjoys watching football, spending time with his wife and daughters, and reading stories about forgotten lands, brave souls, and extraordinary journeys.

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Chetanna's most interesting challenge may not be the wilderness or the forces threatening his island, but the possibility that completing his quest will not validate everything he believed when he began it. That gives The Baal of Shangisha room to ask a more demanding question than whether a young hero is brave enough to reach his destination: what remains of his purpose when reaching it changes what he thought he knew?

 

For young readers drawn to dangerous journeys, ancient mysteries, friendship tested by betrayal, and heroes who have to decide what their ideals are worth when circumstances turn against them, O. Mez's debut offers a quest built around both outward adventure and Chetanna's determination to hold onto his vision of a better world.

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༺ ABOUT THE BOOK ༻

Shipwrecked on her way to an arranged marriage, Lyliana McKenzie discovers that her rescuers are not the saviours she thought them to be. Amidst the dangers of a pirate coup, she must find a way to keep herself safe with the help of only a pixie and one pirate captain. After a failed escape attempt leads her to discover what she thinks are gems, she begins to realise that the stories she heard as a child might not be all just fantasy. 

 

༺ WHY READ THIS BOOK ༻

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I was born and grew up in Leicestershire, UK where I have lived my whole life before joining the Merchant Navy at 18. I achieved my dream of becoming a Master Mariner and held the post of captain for more than ten years, working mostly on the West coast of Africa and the North Sea. Since before my sea career I have loved writing. It gives me great pleasure to share my creativeness with the world, but that is just gravy on top of meeting another life goal. During my off hours I write, read and, occasionally do the odd degree by distance learning. To date, I have master's degrees in Creative Writing and Environment, Health and Safety from the Open University and Sunderland University respectively. My other main interest is tropical fishkeeping though I have yet to write a story about them.

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༺ ABOUT THE BOOK ༻

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SE Estes is a sci-fi and fantasy author whose work blends mythic symbolism, emotional depth, and genre fusion. A multicultural military-brat upbringing and early career in computing shaped SE’s fascination with identity, technology, and transformation. Now based in Indianapolis, SE writes expansive, character-driven universes—including Freedom’s End, the first book in a multi-volume saga about liberation and the soul’s long journey across lifetimes.

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