A WILD RIDE INTO THE UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES
OF A ROGUE GENETICS LAB TINKERING WITH THE LIFE CODE.
Cassie Wilder is shattered—and fundamentally altered.
After watching helplessly as her mother suffers a fatal cardiac arrest during an ocean swim, local police write it off as a tragic accident. But Cassie knows better. Driven by a volatile, dark "voice" unleashed by the trauma, she embarks on a relentless hunt to destroy the powerful biotech executives she’s certain murdered her scientist mother.
Meanwhile, her brother Peter—a former baseball prodigy struggling to rebuild his life with his young son—is dragged into the nightmare when a luxury yacht washes ashore on his beach. On board: a fresh corpse, and their late mother’s gold amulet.
When Peter uncovers their late mother's hidden journal, he discovers a horrifying truth: the Genesys Project. A rogue, AI-driven genomics trial where experimental therapies unlock volatile "ghost" genes— human subjects vanish without a trace—and Cassie is one of its subjects.
After Peter’s son is kidnapped as leverage for the explosive research, he faces an agonizing choice: expose the rogue genetics syndicate to save hundreds of innocent victims—or save the one life that matters most.
Set against the sun-bleached coast and treacherous swamps of South Florida, The Ghost Writer is a relentless, high-concept bio-thriller packed with cinematic twists—perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, Michael Crichton, and Harlan Coben.
A different kind of ghost story...
Steven C. Vogel is an award-winning writer, editor, and creative director, whose commercial career spans thousands of assignments for major global brands, including IBM, Disney, Pratt & Whitney, and Dole Foods. Over the years, he has ghostwritten speeches for CEOs and politicians, interviewed hundreds of business figures worldwide, created national TV campaigns, and worked as a freelance journalist covering sports, finance, and health care.
His corporate career took off when an ad agency asked him to write an annual report for a major corporation “in that voice—your fiction voice. Tell a story…” That assignment earned him the first of a dozen South Florida ADDY Awards and proved that compelling storytelling belongs everywhere. Later awarded the Hemingway Award for short fiction, Steven pairs a copywriter's instinct for brisk pacing with a novelist’s eye for atmosphere and tension.
The Ghost Writer is his debut psychological thriller, capturing both the tropical allure and darker undercurrents of the state he has called home for over five decades. When stepping away from thrillers and crime fiction, he explores teen friendship and coastal mystery-adventures in his upcoming YA sports series, beginning with Raising Sloop John B.
A University of Florida alumnus with a degree in English Literature, Steven grew up on the beaches of South Florida before relocating up the coast to Northeast Florida, outside Jacksonville, where he lives with his wife, Lorraine, and their two cats.
—Coming soon—
When a split-second decision
changes everything.
​​​Teenage friends take refuge on a remote island off the Florida coast after a storm capsizes their sailboat, only to discover they aren't alone—the uncharted coral cay is a yacht chop-shop and smuggling haven for modern-day pirates.
But when Jake and Luke Barlows’ damaged sailboat, the Sloop John B, drifts into their cove, the teens plot their escape. Their plan: A daring night raid on the pirates' camp. Steal the parts for repairs and refloat the sailboat—before being discovered.
It doesn't go exactly as planned.​
Scheduled publishing date:
Summer 2027
Raising Sloop John B launches a fast-paced YA sports mystery-adventure series, about the Barlow brothers and their teen friends getting in and out of mys-adventures.
Imagine the Hardy Boys, but with a serious upgrade: the series is more tech-savvy, the teens more athletically gifted, and together they must navigate more socially-relevant topics, not unlike Mike Lupica-style sports stories, such as Heat and Strike Zone.
These tightly-plotted novellas deliver brisk pacing, ideal for young readers, particularly boys, who are discovering reading and crave action-packed stories.