OVERVIEW

John Corcoran is the author of two novels: Tough Guys Drink Rum, as well as Trouble is my Name. A former Recon Marine, John currently resides in Florida, where he runs his own marine salvage and diving company.

TOUGH GUYS DRINK RUM

1st in Series

Jack Flynn doesn’t want trouble. No, sir. Avoids trouble like you would a nagging ex-wife. What he wants, black coffee and cigarettes aside, is a laid-back life in Margaritaville. But trouble, man, it just loves this guy. You’d think living life on an old shrimp boat anchored off a tropical island would give a man, a man with a past, a certain measure of peace. You’d think that. But you’d be wrong.

Ex-special forces, former pro-boxer, Jack Flynn has left the horrors of war and a checkered past behind, determined to start a new life for himself as a salvage diver and sometimes private eye in a town where people still go to chase dreams. Where the impossible can still happen. Key West, Florida.

Life is good. Time passes.

And then one day trouble rolls into town.

A simple job.

Do a favor for this lawyer broad. Just find this rich guy’s daughter who vanished twenty years ago and was recently spotted in Key West. This Daddy Warbucks jackass is willing to pay some serious coin to find his little angel. And Jack, man, he could really use the dough.

Sounds easy enough. Key West is an island. It’s like, what, two miles by three. How hard could it be? Easy, right? Yeah. Walk in the park. Unless of course you’re a trouble magnet like Jack and a whole freakshow of mobsters and psycho bikers roll into town looking for little girl lost.

These goons, they’re not big fans of Jack’s. Gotta problem with smartasses, which, by his own admission, Jack is. Most of these guys, they’d like nothing more than to put a bullet in Jack’s head. Set him up in a nice, dirt condo.

Problem is, Jack, he’s one tough sonuvabitch. A throwback. Old-school guy. Kinda guy whose favorite outfit is a sneer. And even though no one has ever accused Jack of being smart, he’s a cunning bastard who never gives up. Ever. These gangsters, man, they’ve got no idea what they’re up against.

Available exclusively as an eBook on the world's largest bookstores: Amazon, iBooks, BookShop, etc.  Read today on Amazon's Kindle, iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook, and many more.

TROUBLE IS MY NAME

2ND IN SERIES

Never again. That’s what salvage diver and sometimes private eye Jack Flynn said the last time he did some broad a favor and almost got his ticket punched. Now, this broad, Maureen, a lawyer of all things, she’s got another gig for Jack. A favor she calls it. And, big surprise, Jacks got his tit in a wringer once again.

What a sap.

Another easy job, she tells him.

Simple. Like taking candy.

Tells Jack this Richie Rich client of hers wants to hire some grunts to do a salvage job for him. Find some sunken treasure. OK. Sounds easy enough. Kinda thing Jack does all the time.

Only this rich bastard, Charles Pumpernickel, a real Master-of-the-Universe type of guy, refuses to tell anybody what this particular treasure is.

Big.

That’s what he tells them.

It’s really, really big.

Like it’s friggin’ charades or something. Guy’s keeping his cards close to the chest, pissing Jack off big time. Now, ordinarily, Jack would tell a dope like Charles to go pound sand. Ordinarily. Thing is, Jack, broke as usual, sure wouldn’t mind getting his hands on some of Charles’ money.

So along with Pumpernickel and his entourage of fake friends, hangers-on, and some really, really hot chicks--c’mon, it’s a guy novel--Jack takes a fleet of salvage boats, mega-yachts and party boats to an island off Key West for what has to be the weirdest salvage job of his life.

But of course, inevitably, as is his destiny, things go to shit for Jack when he discovers Mr. Money Bags isn’t exactly on the up and up. Turns out, what they’re doing, it might be just a little illegal. Maybe more than a little illegal. Let’s just call it a felony. And when Jack refuse to play, some real bad hombres decide the best way to solve a problem is to shoot it. Those guys sporting turbans, speaking Pashto and wearing scimitars in their belt? Turns out they’re not on board to help make falafels. And the crazy-looking tattooed muscleheads who look like ex-Russian convicts, mainly because they are ex-Russian convicts, they pretty much want to kill Jack, too.

So, you ask, where’s the love?

Why all the anger?

Well, when Jack finds out just what Richie Rich has discovered on the ocean floor, something that could quite possibly start World War III, the pieces start to fall into place.

‘Course, it’s never that easy for Jack. Once again he’s in a race for his life and the lives of millions of innocent people as he races around the world in hot pursuit of a regular rogue’s gallery of goons, freaks, and low-rent tough guys. I won’t even mention the Masai warriors.

Oh, crap, I just did.

Well, hell, if you wanna hear the rest you’ll just have to buy the damn novel. The price is low enough, ya cheap bastards.

Available exclusively as an eBook on the world's largest bookstores: Amazon, iBooks, BookShop, etc.  Read today on Amazon's Kindle, iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook, and many more.

JOHN CORCORAN

            John was born and raised on the Philadelphia Main Line. Fresh out of high school and looking for adventure, he joined the Marines and found what he was looking for when he volunteered and was accepted into Recon, the Marine Corp’s Special Forces. While in Recon he participated in many training operations all over the world. He also attended many schools including the Army’s Jump School at Benning, and The Army’s Special Forces (Green Beret) Qualification Course, a grueling four-month selection process with an attrition rate of 90%. John graduated first in his class as the Distinguished Honor Graduate.

            After the Marines John went to work for his family’s drilling company where he worked for many years. But over time, he came to miss the adventurous life he had in the Marines and set about trying to get that life back. Because of his love of the ocean he moved to Key West to look for a career in diving. Once again he found what he was looking for. He was hired by Mel Fisher’s Expeditions, the most famous treasure hunting company in the world. Mel Fisher’s Expeditions searches for, and finds, lost shipwrecks. They have found many, but the one that brought them fame and fortune was the discovery and subsequent salvage of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a Spanish Galleon overloaded with over 400 million dollars in lost treasure. The wreck’s main pile was found in 1985, but because it was scattered over eight miles of ocean bottom, it is still being worked to this day. John, as a member of the Fisher dive team, has helped recover millions of dollars in gold, emeralds, and jewelry from this incredible wreck.

            John started as a diver on one of the company’s salvage vessels, was promoted to First Mate, and eventually became the Captain of the Research Vessel R/V Bookmaker, the company’s survey vessel. For the last twelve years John has divided his time between running the company’s state-of-the-art artifact conservation lab where he is the Senior Conservator, and being a member of Special Projects teams searching for other lost Spanish Galleons. In 2010 he participated in a two-month expedition to the North Atlantic where the team explored the Titanic, and then successfully located and recovered artifacts from two shipwrecks in over 17,000 feet of water. The ship’s bell was recovered from one of the wrecks, which was determined to be the deepest historic shipwreck ever found.

            John says that writing novels when you have his type of job is tough. Professional Treasure Hunting is the type of job you live 24/7. But every evening, religiously, and after many cups of black coffee, John manages to fit in 3 to 4 hours of writing.

            John’s favorite writers include, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), W. Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, Hemingway, and James Lee Burke. 

Photo GALLERIES

KEY WEST

Explore Key West and take in the sights.

SALVAGE OPERATIONS

Throughout the years in Treasure Hunting. 

MUSEUM

Laboratory photos located in the Museum.