"He's like Indiana Jones with a Rosary."

That's how McCracken was described by one reader. Engineer, adventurer, big-game hunter, defeater of nefarious villains . . . and of course husband and father.

The McCracken books take place in the early years of the twentieth century, when many of the philosophies that formed the modern imagination were taking shape. That means that McCracken's enemies are representatives of the Culture of Death. How should Catholics respond to nihilism, communism, eugenics, secret societies, and many others? McCracken provides young readers with a map to the paths through the complicated minefield of twenty-first century culture.

But the focus is on adventure/ So come along and dodge the bullets, flee from the Cossacks and head-hunters, jump out of zeppelins, dive to the ocean floor or soar above the clouds in a biplane, because life is an adventure!

Mark Adderley