Books with author Ben Thompson

oThe Pope hears the confession of a senior official of the Vatican Bank. What he learns could shake the foundations of the Christian faith.oA suicide bomber destroys a Fifth Avenue antiquities gallery. A dozen people die and an eighteenth-century manuscript is whisked away. Who went to such lengths to obtain an old Knights Templars diary, and why?oA Mafia godfather with a deadly agenda escapes from a Guatemalan prison and plots revenge on those who put him there.oA Cardinal decodes pages of ancient symbols to learn the secret of Oak Island and its enigmatic Money Pit.In 1795 three teenage boys dug in an old pit on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. They wanted to find out whose engineering expertise created a shaft nearly two hundred feet deep and if it contained treasure as the local people believed. The boys eventually gave up but syndicate after syndicate was formed over the next two hundred years to find the answer to its secrets.Millions of dollars were spent and several lives were lost in the treasure hunt. None of the searchers found riches. A mysterious rock inscribed with a symbolic clue turned up. It said, “Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.” But as excavations in the pit went deeper and deeper those backing the project faced bitter frustration. A set of elaborate traps caused the Money Pit to flood each time someone neared the prize at the bottom. Brian Sadler and a devious Cardinal of the church are pitted against each other in a race to learn secrets protected by the Knights Templars for a thousand years. A former kingpin of the New York mob, dethroned and disgraced, plans a systematic elimination of his enemies. Sadler and his girlfriend Nicole Farber become targets of the ruthless killer as this story careens to its incredible conclusion. Does the Money Pit contain relics that could shake the very foundations of Christianity? The Pope himself becomes involved as Brian Sadler discovers the startling answer to the secret of Oak Island.

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock’s drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million? Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored. This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with both past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

History comes alive for kids like no textbook can in this epic account of the time of the Vikings that's perfect for history buffs and reluctant readers! Contains awesome illustrations! From battle-axe-wielding tribes plundering the greatest cities of Europe to powerful kings and queens ruling their dominions with iron fists, the Vikings were some of the most feared and fearless figures in European history. Find the bravest heroes, the most menacing villains, and unbelievably awesome facts and myths inside this action-packed overview that will amaze kids with tales of a people so incredible...it's hard to believe they were real. History buff and popular blogger Ben Thompson's lively storytelling style brings the Vikings back to life in this second book in the exhilarating Guts & Glory series!

2019 INDEPENDENT BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR POLITICAL THRILLER & RELIGION-FICTION!For over two thousand years there have been whispered rumors of a vast treasure hidden somewhere in Israel. Using the prophecies of Isaiah as their basis, many believe there is a cavern where a thousand golden objects – the sacred relics of the Second Temple – lay strewn about in disarray where they were hurriedly tossed the night the Romans burned Jerusalem.Television personality and antiquities dealer Brian Sadler and his wife arrive in Jerusalem and find danger and uncertainty everywhere they go. In a controversial move, the U.S. president has moved the American embassy to West Jerusalem, inciting riots and anger from the Palestinians.Brian’s colleague, a Syrian who owns a shop in the Old City, offers to show him a cache of wondrous objects, but everything isn’t as it appears. Brian questions if the treasure exists and in a dank underground room, he learns that danger and deceit must be overcome before he can learn the answer. He faces both a ruthless terrorist and someone he once trusted, both of whom want the same things he does. If the words of the Bible are correct and if Isaiah’s prophecy is about to be fulfilled, who will find the hidden treasure of Jerusalem’s Second Temple? An imminent war and a kidnapping put Brian’s mission in peril. It’s a race to find the relics before ISIS does, and the sacred icons are lost forever.

FIRST PLACE EVVY AWARD WINNER IN TWO CATEGORIES - ACTION/ADVENTURE AND THRILLERS/SUSPENSE!NOT SINCE 9/11 . . .One evening in the midst of prime-time programming, networks worldwide interrupt programming to announce that Air Force Two, a Boeing 747 carrying the Vice President and Secretary of State of the USA, has disappeared after leaving Honolulu, Hawaii on a flight to Hong Kong. An extensive search and rescue effort will soon be underway.President William Henry Harrison IV hears the news aboard Air Force One as he flies with his wife and children from the Caribbean to Dallas. The president's plane changes course, heading now to a secure military installation in Florida.Then the unthinkable happens. Twenty minutes after the first plane disappeared, Air Force One vanishes too. Its last reported location was over the deepest part of the Caribbean Sea, an area known as the Cayman Trench. These two incidents, now unmistakably part of a single plan, harken back to that terrible morning on 9/11 when one tragic crash became two, then three, and the world realized it was all part of a massive terrorism plot.In Washington, Speaker of the House Chambliss T. Parkes, a greedy, vulgar buffoon, is rushed to a secret location as the nation goes to DEFCON 1, the highest threat level, for the first time in history. If the planes are truly gone, Parkes will become President of the United States.As financial markets crash, rioters take to the streets and mass hysteria threatens to destroy the framework of free-world government, the CIA must find answers. Were the two most secure aircraft in the world sabotaged? How could it have been anything else? But how could it have happened? Who is behind it and why?Brian Sadler, a wealthy adventurer and the missing President's closest friend, becomes part of the mission to uncover a plot with worldwide implications. What could possibly get worse?

WINNER OF 2019 EVVY AWARD FOR HORROR!The once-famous Hotel Iberia was where society’s finest gathered in the days before 1859 when Victory, Louisiana became a ghost town. A building where people had laughed, dined and passed the time among friends became something dark, sinister and evil.The town was dead, so no one complained when the Victory Institution for the Criminally Insane opened in the old hotel. The state sent its problems to the Asylum — violent, disturbed men who entered the gates of hell and never came back.Hundreds died inside those walls before scandal closed the prison in 1907 and the corpses of those forgotten men were buried in a cemetery at the back of the property.For a century, the building has been abandoned. But only by the living.The dead couldn’t leave. Their tormented spirits couldn’t escape the horrors they had experienced. Unspeakable things kept them locked in the ancient cell blocks, doomed to haunt the building forever.Rookie deputy sheriff Landry Drake spends a frightening afternoon inside the Asylum, investigates a series of apparently unrelated, unsolved murders inside the prison. He and a friend are caught in a trap. Kidnapped and chained in the old prison’s underground torture chamber, they know what fate awaits them at the hands of a maniacal sociopath. He’s killed many times before, and they will be next.Landry must solve a puzzle before more people die, and he must find a way to keep himself from becoming the next name on the list of terrifying crimes at the Asylum.

As long as one has breath, hope exists!Probation Officer Philip Bones, obviously a glutton for punishment, can't stand to see anyone hit rock bottom.Without a shadow of doubt, he knows one person has the ability to make a life-long impact on another — and he doesn't take that responsibility lightly.Too bad fourteen-year-old Billy Andrews lacks the self-discipline needed to change his wicked ways. When a young man asks to be mentored, a true servant of God can't refuse.If Billy will heed the difficult lessons he's about to receive, he'll make a complete turnaround.If you enjoyed Rebuilding Alden, you'll love Redirecting Billy!Buy your copy today to find out if Billy can change his thug-like ways!

2019 INDEPENDENT BOOK AWARDS WINNER FOR HORROR!2019 SILVER IPPY AWARD FOR HORROR!2018 FIRST PLACE EVVY AWARD WINNER FOR HORROR!Deep in the Louisiana bayou, an ancient mansion sits empty and abandoned.Callie Pilantro inherits the house and finds a mysterious child there who appears and disappears at will.Even the walls of the mansion hold long-forgotten secrets.Get your copy today!Follow Callie as she struggles to find the secrets of her house even as someone or something tries to stop her. It all ends one eerie night. Will it be too late for Callie?Buy it now!

Philip Bones — living proof that nice guys don’t finish last. Working in the juvenile justice field and striving to make the world a better place, it’s no wonder he’s in a committed relationship with a gorgeous co-worker. But things are likely to take a few unexpected turns.Driven by compassion, the young probation officer invests a VAST amount of his free time in Alden, a fiery-tempered thirteen-year-old who’s setting himself up for a life behind bars. With a bit of tough love, he’s certain he can do for Alden what the legal system cannot — rebuild the boy’s character and give him a better chance of securing a successful future.Helping Alden comes with a cost. Philip’s girlfriend doesn’t like coming in second place to a rebellious teen. His boss and co-workers disapprove of him spending his personal time with a client. But for Philip, Alden is worth fighting for — no matter the price.If you enjoy clean, inspirational, life-changing novels, get Rebuilding Alden, the first book in the Worthy Battle Series, today.

The Crypt Trilogy follows the adventures of one unique, wealthy man with many identities. In "The Relic of the King" a London bookseller falls through a basement floor into an ancient crypt, discovering something that may change history. An astonishing set of diaries turns up, written by a monarch whom history says never existed."The Crypt of the Ancients" takes the protagonist into the jungles of Guatemala, where a rebel leader captures a busload of tourists and holds them for ransom. When he begins killing them one by one, something must be done quickly. A beautiful archaeology student discovers an astonishing connection between two civilizations and secrets in a cave that will help free the prisoners.In "Ghost Train," our hero arrives in Berlin looking for clues about a rumored trainload of wealth stolen by the Nazis and hidden in a cavern. A cache that would fund Hitler's Fourth Reich lies hidden, and a Romanian family believes its patriarch has a coded diary that tells where he helped hide the train. Nothing is as it should be; a hundred-year-old murderer, a gypsy fortune-teller and greedy relatives lead Paul Silver on the most exciting adventure of his life - a search for the mysterious Ghost Train of the Nazis.

[Read by Will Collyer, John Glouchevitch, Dan Woren]A fierce group of rebels who will never surrender.An empire with an army that has never known defeat.And a war that changed the world forever.From George Washington crossing the icy Delaware, to Molly Pitcher fearlessly firing her cannon, the people of the American Revolution were some of the bravest and most inspiring of all time. Jump into a riot in the streets of Boston, join the Culper Spy Ring as they steal secrets in the dead of night, and watch the signing of the Declaration of Independence in this accessible guide to the birth of the United States.History buff and popular blogger Ben Thompson combines extensive research and irresistible storytelling to make history come alive in this fourth book in the unforgettable Guts & Glory series.

History comes alive for kids like no textbook can in this epic account of the time of the Vikings that's perfect for history buffs and reluctant readers! Contains awesome illustrations!From battle-axe-wielding tribes plundering the greatest cities of Europe to powerful kings and queens ruling their dominions with iron fists, the Vikings were some of the most feared and fearless figures in European history. Find the bravest heroes, the most menacing villains, and unbelievably awesome facts and myths inside this action-packed overview that will amaze kids with tales of a people so incredible...it's hard to believe they were real.History buff and popular blogger Ben Thompson's lively storytelling style brings the Vikings back to life in this second book in the exhilarating Guts & Glory series!