Contemporary Characters

Historical Encounters

Page-turning Adventure

Apollo Series Novels

The Apollo Series novels follow the exploits of college classic professors, Lauren and Zack Fletcher, as they are thrust into an adventure that pits them against past and present where they must use their wit, perseverance, wisdom and innate survival instincts to ensure that history does not repeat itself.  

Book 1: PASSAGE AT DELPHI

Present Day: San Diego, California

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Ancient languages and history professors Lauren and Zack Fletcher carry on their academic lives with relative ease, but they are splintered by their contention over career goals and starting a family.  When Zack suggests a trip to Greece, Lauren hopes for a second honeymoon while Zack is maneuvering to engage her in yet another dig.  But the unwitting targets of a mysterious taskmaster,  neither of their wishes will be fulfilled.  Instead, their lives are about to be upended in ways neither could imagine as, unbeknownst to them, they’ve been drafted to take part in a quest that will span millennia and decide the course of mankind’s future.

Their fate manipulated, Lauren and Zack are propelled into an ancient Greek war, forcing them to confront a past that is both familiar and terrifying. To return home, they must overcome warfare on a massive scale, set aside their recent marital discord, and find within themselves the wisdom to navigate treacherous routes of survival.

Will they ever understand why they’ve been chosen to witness what has only been written about in history books?  What lessons will they bring back to the challenges of our time, and the future?

Dreams will be dashed and others realized as Lauren and Zack negotiate a dangerous dance of cultural wonder, calculated risk, and unintended consequences. 

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Book 2: DELPHI'S CHOSEN

Present Day: Delphi, Greece

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Picking up where PASSAGE AT DELPHI left off, in DELPHI'S CHOSEN classics professors Lauren and Zack Fletcher question reality as they find themselves separated by thousands of years and navigating new threats in order to avert disastrous events in our time.

In modern-day Delphi, Lauren has a lot to explain as she protects a young orphan girl with a past that must be concealed.

In ancient Greece, circa 480 BC, Zack risks his life in battles against the Persian might of King Xerxes and forces poised to destroy the Greek city-states. A newly minted warrior, Zack must also parry the amorous assaults of a determined queen who seemingly will not take no for an answer.

With their lives manipulated by Apollo and their mission yet unclear, Zack and Lauren are pawns in a race to save the modern world from chaos.

Will they succeed? Or ever reunite? And if they do, will they each recognize the person they left behind? The adventure continues...

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Book 3: JOURNEY FROM DELPHI

Ancient times: Delphi, Greece

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Continuing from where PASSAGE AT DELPHI and DELPHI’S CHOSEN left off, in JOURNEY FROM DELPHI, professors Lauren and Zack Fletcher are still separated by a chasm of centuries and by the mission for which Apollo has chosen them.

Pawns in a race to save the modern world from chaos, and forced to face down enemies from the past and present, these unlikely heroes must find in themselves the strength to persevere.

As Zack is thrust into battles from the past and Lauren lends her talents to a clandestine group in the present, they also face the possibility that they will remain forever separated by time. Who has set the plot to change the world in motion?

Will an ancient warrior prove Lauren’s undoing? What sacrifices must be made to preserve a way of life?

Weaving together history, romance, and a heroic quest, author A.K. Patch once again brings his readers into a maelstrom of compelling events, this time revealing who is behind the plot to destroy the modern world– and whether Zack and Lauren were the right choice to help foil the attempt.

With its conclusion, the Apollo Series leaves you, the reader, to answer what may in reality be this century’s most pressing question: Should we attempt to not just influence, but alter the human species and, if so, where do we draw the boundary lines on technological progress that will also protect and preserve humanity?

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Cast of Characters

Lauren Fletcher, Professor of Ancient Languages at San Diego State University.  Academic success is finally hers, but there remains a nagging shortfall in her life. She has been unable to conceive, and it consumes her waking thoughts. Her husband is not on board with her quest for parenthood; he wants to continue the travels and adventures that brought them together and along the way gain tenure.  And in this quest, he lures Lauren into circumstances that turn their lives upside down. Faced with the war, danger, and inexplicable events, Lauren finds she is stronger than she ever realized – and that despite his selfishness, she truly loves Zack.  But her concern for him is eclipsed by her need to keep her charge – a child she brings back to the present from ancient Greece, safe.  Can she face down fear, confusion, and loneliness and do this?

Zackary Fletcher, Professor of History at SDSU.   Charming but boyish, he needs – and pursues – that one big project to gain tenure. When a former teacher from Athens contacts him to ask for help on a new project on Santorini, he ready to go, but he’s promised Lauren they will stay home this summer and concentrate on starting a family. His ruse and manipulation brings her to Greece, but it is only when they are separated and he realizes the danger they are facing that Zack fully understands what he might have lost.  Will he find his way back to Lauren?  Despite the enticements, will he remain faithful?

Bessus, a brutal warlord from ancient Bactria (modern–day Afghanistan).  Bessus marches with King Xerxes’s army, attacking Greece in 480 BC. He craves war spoils and revenge, but fears that his unguarded heir back home will be deposed and slain while he’s gone. A chance encounter redirects him from returning home quickly to slaying those who have wronged him, no matter where it leads him.  Rather than diluting his power, stepping from his world into Zack and Laurens only seems to make him more diabolical.  Will Lauren and her young charge survive?