Captain Swashbuckle

CAPTAIN SWASHBUCKLE

Created by: Brian K. Lowe

Characters:

Eric Reinhold

Katherine "Kate" Reinhold

Ted Kane

Damien Pierrot

T.J. "Professor Death" Gillis

Many heroes have used the deaths of loved ones to inspire their fight against crime. Eric Reinhold used his own.

         Growing up the children of a roving diplomat, Eric and his sister Kate learned about many cultures, and acquired an array of languages. When the Great War came, Eric volunteered to fight, even though he was too young to enlist. He met Ted Kane, Damien Pierrot, and T.J. Gillis, all underage volunteers themselves. Bound by their common secret, they formed a tight-knit team, broken apart only when Eric volunteered for the Army Air Corps, where he taunted the infamous Red Baron not only by his own daredevil flying, but by taking the name "Captain Swashbuckle." Immediately after the war, he disappeared for two years, a time he still does not like to discuss.

         The quartet met again in college, where they spent four years on the gridiron wearing the blue and gold uniforms of UCLA--and T.J. earned the mantle "Professor Death." Graduating, Ted joined the LAPD and became a detective, Damien a renowned chemist, and T.J. a brilliant geologist. Eric, abandoning his law studies, returned to the air as a stunt pilot.

         In 1932, with the Los Angeles Olympic Games only a few months away, a criminal conspiracy tried to terrorize the city with the Invisible Death, a weapon that killed men in broad daylight, breaking their necks as though they had been hanged. When Kate was mistakenly targeted by the gang, Eric and his buddies rescued her, and in the process placed themselves squarely in the sights of a plot to bring down not only the Games, but the entire United States. Tragically, Eric was shot during a gunfight with mobsters on a derelict ship and fell into the ocean. His body was not recovered.

         But Eric survived, and he infiltrated the gang so he could eradicate it from within. Once the conspiracy was destroyed and its leader unmasked, Eric realized that the power his anonymity gave him could be used as a weapon against those who would prey upon the weak. Aided by Kate, Ted, Damien, and T.J., Eric left behind his name and his very life to fight injustice wherever it might be found, each time assuming a new identity so secret that even his closest associates do not know behind which face he might be found.

         The first two books in the series, The Choking Rain and The Scent of Death, are available at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com. The third, Dr. Scar, is under construction.