Cecilia Anne Stanhope, Celia to her friends, watches in horror as the small aircraft carrying her parents crashes. Her only relative is her aunt, Air Force Captain Anita Carter, who lives on Ramstein Air Base, Germany. This new place is far away and so different from her beloved eastern North Carolina woodlands. Celia does not like her aunt and her aunt appears not to like Celia. It's a regular standoff between two strong-willed females. Mix in her aunt's boyfriend, Captain Michael Howland, who tries to be nice to Celia--maybe too nice--and the fireworks spark. What Celia needs more than...

Cecilia Anne "Celia" Stanhope and co-conspirator Regina "Goldie" O'Brien are at it again! They're back in Sandy Run, North Carolina, and Celia learns that her dead parents left a trust fund of more than one hundred thousand dollars-a detail that her guardian, the Air Force Captain Anita Carter, failed to mention. Trouble is Celia is eighteen years old and supposed to wait until she's twenty-one to get the money! Does she want to wait? Will her aunt terminate the trust early? You guessed it, no. Celia cooks up a plan to get her aunt to release the trust funds. But where to go? The girls spin...

Hey there! This is Cecilia Anne "Celia" Stanhope and my life is about to get really exciting! My buddy, Regina "Goldie" O'Brien, and I are about to find us some treasure! I know you're laughing at that idea, but this is where it gets really interesting. Goldie and I met a couple of guys, Mark and Nick, who have in their possession a sword hilt from the S.M.S. Cormoran-a German shipwreck that dates to World War One. Mark found the beautiful brass hilt while metal detecting on the beach on Rota, an island just north of Guam in the Marianna Island chain. The thing is the Cormoran is located in...