Showing results by author "William Ferrier Jr." in All Categories

On a rainy class trip to the California State Railroad Museum, eleven-year-old Clara Hernández just wants to disappear into her sketchbook. New school, no friends—she feels as out of place as an old caboose on the wrong track. Then she sees it: a scratched silver compass in a glass case, said to guide people where they are needed most. When the needle spins and the museum floor vanishes, Clara is hurled into the fog of 1862 Sacramento—the year a flood nearly washes the city away. There, among collapsing levees, galloping horses, and streets turned to rivers, Clara meets Sammy and Anita...

From struggling actress to master spy—the untold story of America's most dangerous double agent Nashville, 1863. When desperate actress Pauline Cushman agrees to toast Jefferson Davis for three hundred dollars, she has no idea she's about to become the Civil War's most legendary spy. Arrested, tried, and banished from Union territory, she seems like the perfect Confederate recruit. But Pauline is playing the role of her lifetime. Secretly working for Union intelligence, she must convince Nashville's Confederate elite that she's their most loyal supporter while gathering intelligence that ...

August 16, 1948. Memorial Hospital, New York City. Babe Ruth is dying. And he's finally ready to tell the truth. Not the legend. Not the sixty home runs or the Called Shot or the House That Ruth Built. The real story—the one he's never told anyone. The story of a seven-year-old boy abandoned at the gates of a Baltimore reformatory. The story of the hole that never filled, no matter how far he hit the ball. The story of the daughter he lied to, the wives he betrayed, and the best friend he lost to pride. Before he was the Bambino, he was George—a scared kid nobody wanted. In this ...

What if your worst betrayal was preparing you for your greatest purpose? Thrown into a pit by his brothers. Sold into slavery for twenty pieces of silver. Falsely accused by his master's wife. Forgotten in an Egyptian prison for years. Joseph had every reason to believe God had abandoned him. He was wrong. "This is not punishment. This is preparation." JOSEPH OF GENESIS: PREPARATION, NOT PUNISHMENT reimagines the biblical story of the dreamer who lost everything—his family, his freedom, his future—only to discover that every wound was a doorway, every descent a rehearsal for rising, and...

"I forgive him. I want him to be with me in Paradise." These were the last words of an eleven-year-old girl dying from fourteen stab wounds—spoken not in hatred, but in love for the man who murdered her. From the hills of Corinaldo to the marshes of Le Ferriere, from a prison cell to the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, this is the story of Saint Maria Goretti—virgin, martyr, and witness to the transforming power of grace. Italy, 1902. Maria Goretti is a peasant girl who carries water, minds her siblings, and prays the rosary with wooden beads worn smooth by her mother's hands. She is ...

Legacy of the Badge One son. One truth. One department built on lies. When Jack Callahan returns home after years in the Navy and special forces, he isn’t just another academy recruit—he’s the son of a legendary cop who died a hero. But the deeper Jack goes into the ranks of the department his father once served, the more he realizes something is off. Secrets are buried behind badges. Files are sealed. And the men who once called his father a brother now look at Jack like a threat. Haunted by the past and driven by the need for answers, Jack uncovers a hidden network of corruption ...

STILL WALKING Surviving the Mountains, Memories, and Monsters by William Ferrier Jr. When the plane went down, Maya thought the worst thing she’d face was the cold. She was wrong. Maya Chen-Rodriguez survives the impossible—an air-crash deep in the Bitterroot Mountains. Injured, alone, and with a damaged prosthetic leg, she should not be alive. But when she discovers her grandmother Rose wandered from the wreckage—confused, bleeding, and slipping into the fog of early-onset dementia—Maya makes a decision that will change her forever. She goes after her. What Maya doesn’t know is ...

Anna’s Song Faith, Music, and the Quiet Between Applause By William Ferrier Jr. When rising country artist Lila Delaney stepped onto the Grand Ole Opry stage, she thought she’d finally found her dream. But one promise — whispered in a hospital room by a child with more faith than fear — would turn her music into a mission. Now, as fame and faith collide, Lila creates Sing It Forward Live, a movement that lets fans dedicate songs to the ones they love and raises hope for kids fighting cancer. From small-town stages to sold-out arenas, her message spreads like wildfire — until a ...

She rang the bell. And everything changed. Twelve-year-old Finley is the kind of kid who notices everything and says almost nothing. While her loud, fearless little brother Liam makes friends everywhere they go, Finley hangs back — watching, cataloging, disappearing into the walls. So when her family drags her to Fort Ross State Historic Park on the California coast instead of letting her go to a sleepover, she's furious. Then a park guide named Maddie leads her to a small, tarnished bell inside a two-hundred-year-old chapel. One pull of the rope, and Finley wakes up in 1820. Fort Ross is...

From the author of The Jungle Does Not Remember Eight Marines. Five days. One city that swallowed them all. November 2004. Second Battle of Fallujah. Sergeant Noah Cain leads a squad of eight into the deadliest urban combat since Hue City. Room by room, door by door, they push south through the Jolan district — clearing houses, taking fire, and carrying the weight of everything the city puts inside them. But Cain carries something the others don't know about. Seven months ago, he called a fire mission on a mosque. Civilians died. A Marine named Marco Torres died. Cain buried it in a false...

Seven men vanished from Spain’s first over-land march into California. This is the story the diaries erased—and the gold that doomed them. 1769. Governor Gaspar de Portolá leads soldiers, missionaries, and ships toward the mythical ports of San Diego and Monterey. Scurvy hollows the ranks, rations rot, and earthquakes rattle the coast. Deep in the fog-shrouded redwoods, five soldados de cuera and two Native scouts discover river sand that glitters with raw gold. Bound by desperation, they desert under cover of night, vowing to survive the wilderness and return for the mother lode. ...

What would you sacrifice to survive? And how much of yourself would be left? Percy Augustus Cole knows the answer cost him everything. Chicago, 1920s. Percy's grandmother raises him with three rules: Stand tall. Use all three names. Never compromise your dignity. But dignity doesn't pay rent during the Depression. When the Navy offers steady wages, Percy enlists as a mess attendant aboard the USS Arizona. The work is simple: serve breakfast, pour coffee, stay invisible. Six years of making himself smaller. Six years of perfecting the dangerous art of disappearing. He becomes so good at ...

He built the system. Then the system replaced him. For twenty-two years, Ray Lomax kept the machines running. State contracts. Government databases. The invisible infrastructure that moved millions of dollars and millions of lives through pipes he designed and maintained and never once questioned. Then, at 11:47 PM on a Wednesday, an email arrived. Subject: Meridian Systems — Workforce Restructuring Notification. The word the email used was deprecated. Not fired. Not laid off. Deprecated — the technical term for software that still functions but has been marked for removal. Present but ...

The fog doesn't hide the truth. It just makes the truth harder to prove. Nolan Cross has spent his career preserving other people's secrets. As a senior archivist at the California State Archives in Sacramento, he catalogs the past with the same careful distance he keeps from everything else in his life. Then a federal judge presses a flash drive into his hand — and turns up murdered the next morning. The drive contains fifteen years of buried evidence: thirty-seven Delta landowners stripped of their properties, fourteen people imprisoned for crimes they never committed, five people dead....

Tom Hale: The Weight of Names A Novel of War, Silence, and Translation by William Ferrier Jr. In a war built on lies, his only weapon is the truth—and even that can kill. Madrid, 1937. The city burns from the inside out. Bombs fall, alliances shift, and every word is dangerous. American linguist Tom Hale is sent to translate for a foreign tribunal, believing language can bridge chaos. But in a world where each sentence is a verdict and every signature seals a fate, he discovers that neutrality is a myth—and silence has its own cost. As the war tightens its grip, Tom becomes witness to ...

A foul ball, a red ribbon, and one promise that spans generations. When Kaylee catches a screaming pop fly at Woodland’s Clark Field, the world tilts—and she finds herself in 1942 on the eve of Japanese American incarceration. There she meets Emi, a fearless girl determined to play one last game before the buses arrive. What begins as a reluctant afternoon at the ballpark becomes a race to hold on to home, history, and the friend who teaches Kaylee how courage sounds when you say it out loud. Perfect for fans of When You Reach Me, Refugee, and Baseball Saved Us, this heartfelt middle-...

Verdict of Silent Water is an electrifying legal thriller where buried secrets refuse to stay submerged. When legendary federal prosecutor Tom Alden is lured out of retirement, it isn’t for prestige or politics—it’s to defend Caleb Mercer, the decorated war hero who once saved his life. Caleb stands accused of a brutal murder, and every shred of evidence screams guilty. But as Tom peels back the case, he uncovers a multi-million-dollar corruption scheme, a hired killer, and a conspiracy that reaches the halls of Congress. The deeper Tom digs, the closer he comes to a night forty years...

You Got This: The High School Survival Guide is the book every middle schooler needs before stepping into high school—and every parent will be glad they found. Packed with honest advice, relatable stories, and zero cheesy lectures, this guide helps teens navigate the real stuff: making friends, handling pressure, staying organized (sort of), and staying true to themselves in a world that’s constantly trying to shape them. Whether your student is excited, anxious, or somewhere in between, this book offers something better than a blueprint—it offers reassurance. With short, digestible ...

Leaving for college is one of life’s biggest transitions—and one of its greatest adventures. This thoughtful, funny, and practical guide was written for soon-to-be freshmen taking their first steps toward independence. Packed with honest advice and comforting wisdom, this book covers everything from managing time and money to finding your people and surviving homesickness. It’s the conversation every parent, mentor, and older sibling wishes they’d had—and now you can give it to someone you love. More than a how-to, it’s a reassuring reminder: they’re ready for this.

Build Without Permission is the no-fluff, real-world playbook for builders, leaders, and doers who are tired of waiting for a degree, a title, or someone else's approval. Drawing from battle-tested experience in startups, enterprise tech, and government innovation, William Ferrier Jr. reveals the unspoken truths that actually drive success—whether you're launching a product, leading a team, or scaling a business. No jargon. No MBA required. Inside, you'll learn how to: Think like a strategist, even under pressure Build products people actually want Earn trust through marketing that feels ...