The Phantom Train

Phantom Train is the ninth novel in my Jeannie Loomis thriller series. She is a flawed but dedicated FBI Agent who believes that the ends justify the means. Being able to fly below the political radar of the Bureau’s hierarchy, Loomis has been able to reach the rank of Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco office. There she fights crime with her sidekick, best friend, and second-in-command, Ismail Flores.
I created the novel after recent publications about a mythical gold train of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich being found inside a cave in Europe. Unfortunately for the treasure hunters, there was no train, just a seismic anomaly. Based on historical research, records indicate that in fact, Hitler placed his second in command, Hermann Goering in charge of hiding the ill-gotten wealth taken from the Jews prior to and during the holocaust. Following the advance of the Wehrmacht, Goering instructed the confiscation of valuables from museums, churches, synagogues, and private homes of the Jews.
Later, after the opening of the death camps predominately in eastern Poland, and the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish question, more valuables including gold and human teeth were added to the wealth of the Reich from those condemned to die in the gas chambers. So much in fact, that Goering began running out of caves and salt mines to store the loot so tunnels had to be constructed to hide away newly constructed trains whose purpose was the transport of the treasure.
As the war turned against Hitler and the Third Reich, a decision was made to hide the loot in occupied countries since the Allies would surely search Germany at the end of the war and find the wealth that Hitler hoped would be used to resurrect a new Fourth Reich.
The story starts with Jeannie and her partner, Ismail, responding to a double homicide of a mother and daughter. As they attempt to discover the identity of the perpetrators, two Mossad agents contact her supervisor claiming to have information about the people responsible.
Through Mossad, it is learned that The Organization, a modern-day Nazi group that is trying to establish a new Fourth Reich, believed that the recently deceased Waffen-SS officer, has information on the location of one of Hitler’s gold trains. They tortured and killing of the mother and daughter of the double homicide the FBI is investigating since they were related to the dead SS officer in hopes of securing its location.
A search of his residence eventually revealed a hidden room activated by a tuning fork, gold bars, gold fillings, maps, and a diary. As an evidence team was searching the room with Jeannie and Ismail, members of the Organization strike, shooting both Jeannie and her partner. Awakening in the hospital later, Jeannie learns that the mistakenly only took the maps and not the diary.
This diary, believed to have the exact location of the mythical phantom train, posed problems since it was written in a code that even the CIA could not break. Later, after researching the various death camps that the dead uncle had been assigned, it was found that his later entries were written in urine, similar to what four girls used in one of the death camps.
Jeannie flies to Austria and teams up with her FBI counterparts there and the search of the mountain begins. This is where twists and turns are realized and exposed. Even after the phantom train is found, more treachery is revealed.
Jeannie Loomis also is the female protagonist in three other scripts: Ark of the Covenant, The Fourth Reich, and Rollercoaster (soon to be released).