Fiction Archives - Mikel B. Classen On The Road

The image for the book by Mikel B. Classen called the Alexandria Code, an Isabella Carter Mystery.

The cover art for the novel the Alexandria Code, an Isabella Carter Mystery, by Mikel B. Classen, now available.

The Alexandria Code – What is it?

Like a message in a bottle, imagine messages in stone. Take it a little further and picture computer code in stone and the stone is crystal, ordinary quartz, taken from an underwater archaeological dig in Alexandria, Egypt. What would the messages be? What secrets might they hold?

This is the dilemma of the Alexandria Code, a new novel from Mikel B. Classen. Beginning on the notorious waterfront of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Isabella Carter, archaeology professor at University of Michigan, is given an ordinary looking quartz crystal by an old enemy to research. This begins an adventure that is non-stop thrills and excitement.

Starting in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the story travels to New York, Bimini, Egypt, Central America, Florida and back with danger lurking at every corner. Isabella Carter, Aiden McKenzie, and a group of students team-up to take down tomb robbers and black market antiquities dealers who would do anything to obtain the secrets held within the crystals.

The back cover image to the Alexandria Code by Mikel B. Classen

Back cover of the novel the Alexandria Code, an Isabella Carter Mystery by Mikel B. Classen

Review of the Alexandria Code:

“Isabella Carter is a woman with a mission, she’s equally at home with an automatic pistol as she is at an archeological dig and her resolve will be tested at every turn. Move over Indiana Jones, there’s a new scientist/action-hero who is uncovering and solving mysteries of the ancient world. Through it all, she’s also discovering her shamanic story that began in the jungles of South America.” —Victor R. Volkman, Superior Reads

The Alexandria Code on Amazon: Click Here!

Check out my other books: Click Here!

The publisher of the Alexandria Code – Modern History Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Lake Superior Tales Audiobook

At last it’s here, the audiobook version of Lake Superior Tales. Read brilliantly by Rory Young, he captures the essence of these adventure stories. Hearing these tales adds another dimension to the short stories I created surrounding the unique history of Upper Michigan and the Great Lakes.

Here there are stories of pirates and lost treasure, humor and satire, and a look into the life that once was a part of the Lake Superior frontier. As a Michigan historian I’ve researched most aspects of Michigan History and that research has led me into many directions. I’m mostly known for my non-fiction. Sometimes that research inspires something fictional and a story is born. That is what makes up the pages of Lake Superior Tales, stories inspired by my wanderings and research.

For instance, “Cave of Gold,” the last story in the book, was written in a cabin in the Porcupine Mountains. It was raining and I was surrounded by a lot of mud. Hiking was out. So, I started thinking about hiking, the story starts out with a guy hiking in the woods in the 1800s. Then I thought, what if there was a dead man leaning against a tree? After that it wrote itself. Eventually the rain stopped and I went about hiking but the story was written.

My favorite story of the collection is called the “Wreck of the Marie Jenny.” ( an excert can be heard below). I had written a story called “Bullets Shine Silver in the Moonlight,” (Also in Lake Superior Tales) which focuses around a story about a pile of hidden gold bars from an old shipwreck called the Marie Jenny. I began wondering, how did the shipwreck get there in the first place? I was in the Keweenaw Peninsula in Calumet having a beer at Shutey’s Bar. There were two old guys talking and one was a ship’s captain. He kept saying over and over, “I gotta confess to ya,” and that was how the story was born.

Lake Superior Tales is very close to my heart and to hear it this way as an audiobook is a real treat for me. I hope everyone will enjoy it. Take a trip with me through my collection of short stories, Lake Superior Tales.

To get the audiobook go here: Lake Superior Tales

Reviews of Lake Superior Tales:

“It’s clear that Mikel B. Classen knows and loves the Lake Superior area of Michigan and brings it to life in a delightful way. If you want frequent laughs, unusual characters who jump off the page, and the fruit of a highly creative mind, you’ve got to read this little book.” (Bob Rich, author, Looking Through Water)

“Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a unique place in this world, and Mikel’s lovely little book, “Tales,” makes that clear. Mikel has long been recognized as a leading proponent of all the wonderful attributes of the Upper Peninsula, and currently he serves as the Managing Editor of the UP Reader. So, seeing him tackle this project does not surprise me. But what I did find exciting is the electricity he captures on every page, and the energy he uses to express it. My father was a lumberjack, moonshiner and “gunslinger” in the UP a century ago,” (Michael Carrier from Modern History Press)