The Iconoclast

About the Book

Taylor Barnes thinks finding that hoard of gold was just too easy.  Murphy's Law is bound to catch up with him.  When they started out his young crewmembers were like three happy kids, fishing and snorkeling their way from South Florida to this deserted cay in the Turks and Caicos.  Their attitude was, "Just have fun, and everything else is gravy."  But that was back when they had nothing to lose.  It's a whole different ballgame, now.  Fun part's over. Tough part’s just beginning. Those kids are on the brink of becoming multi-millionaires, and Barnes' been-there/done-that schooling tells him attitudes can change. Plotting his course from this point won't be easy. One wrong move and they'd be in a world of hurt.

  The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British colony, and the law says treasure trove buried on British soil by party or parties unknown belongs to the Commonwealth.  Oh they know who buried it, all right, but revealing that information would only make matters worse. Without establishing a legal claim they could forget about any chance of taking the treasure out intact and reaping its aesthetic value of a couple hundred million bucks.  Melted down, on the other hand, the three tons of gold would fit in the bilge. They , could slip out at night and peddle it the bullion on the black market for close to thirty  million. Easy choice, right? Take the money and run.

   But then comes the moral dilemma: Melting down priceless works of art is bad enough, but most of those hand-carved artifacts are of a religious nature. How could a good Catholic like Barnes even consider destroying crucifixes? And saints? And Madonnas?

   Then of course there are those other obstacles:  Like Slick Moran, who's been dogging them from the start, and they don't even know why.  All they do know is that he's a cold-blooded killer.  Add to that the island watchdog committee, who seem to be tracking their every move and it gets real clear that this isn't going to be just another stroll on the beach.

   From the tragic May-December liaison of Tay and Julie, to the fiery infatuation of Beek and Kim, whose thrill-seeking leads to more than they ever bargained for, The ICONOCLAST is a romantic adventure novel that will grab at the heart of anyone who ever dared to have a dream. It is a saga of unbridled lust and paralyzing fear; of a fabulous find and a gut-wrenching loss; and it’s about four would-be adventurers, only three of whom would live to tell of their week of pure hell and the curse of Mother's gold.

About the Author

Warren Dickman was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. where he graduated Franklyn Lane High School before moving on to Colorado and the University of Denver. His non-fiction articles have appeared in various magazines and newspapers since 1977. He first tried his hand at fiction writing in 1985 and it quickly became his chief avocation. Currently residing with his wife, Nell, in Morgan Hill, California, he keeps busy selling real estate while putting the finishing touches on his second novel.