Rick Brant Science Adventures

In The Rocket’s Shadow, Rick Brandt first meets his new friend Don Scott, and investigates the apparent sabotage of the Spindrift Foundation’s new experimental rocket, which if successful, will net them a two-million-dollar grant. The deadline is only a few days away, and confused fingers of guilt point to more than one suspect. But, who can it be? This novel is not only a ripping tale of young adventure, but it is very much a slice of life from the beginning of the cold war and serious experimentation in the U.S. with rockets.

With the success of the lunar rocket in the previous novel, The Rocket's Shadow, Rick Brant and Scotty learn that they have been chosen as part of the Tibet expedition to place communications equipment there to bounce radar signals off the moon. From the beginning of the expedition, however, they discover that someone does not want the experiment to succeed. As the date for the lunar relay looms closer, they are still miles away from their destination and in the hands of a dangerous criminal. Their only friend is a clever Indian boy, Chahda, who has disappeared.

Sea Gold is the third book in the Rick Brant Science Adventure series, where young adult Rick Brant and his ex-Marine pal, Don Scott, live on Spindrift Island off the coast of New Jersey, where Rick's father, Hartson Brant, heads the scientists of the Spindrift Foundation. In Sea Gold, Rick and Scotty are off for the summer because college is out of session and all the scientists have temporarily left Spindrift for other research challenges, so nothing is happening there.

Rick Brant and his friend Scotty are bound for the islands of the South Pacific. But beaches and the tropical climate are not what they have in mind. Deeper than divers have ever been lies the ancient temple of Alta-Yuan. Is the Spindrift's new experiment, the Submobile, capable of withstanding the pressures of the deep? If so, there may be others interested in using it for purposes other than scientific studies.

As The Whispering Box Mystery gets underway, we find Rick and Scotty in an unfamiliar position: on the outside looking in, as Rick's father and scientist friends work on a secret government project. The Spindrift Island leader, Hartson Brant, had always implicitly trusted Rick and Scotty before, but ever since a government spook named Steve Ames came to him with details of a national threat, Hartson has refused to tell Rick and Scotty anything. It's a bitter pill to swallow, considering their record of saving Spindrift's projects from sabotage.

Barby Brant finally gets to leave Spindrift Island and accompany Rick and Scotty on an adventure. The three Spindrifters and Chahda meet their friends, the Warners, on the trawler Tarpon and head off to map fishing grounds in the exotic South Pacific. They soon run head long into a mystery concerning a mysterious individual called the Phantom Shark, who sells the best pearls to be be found anywhere and has a reputation for being a dangerous person to cross.

Rick Brant and Don Scott are back from their vacation in the South Pacific and are finding adventure near Spindrift Island. They're on their own this time, with no support from any of the Spindrift scientists, though they do get help from a likable old sea salt named Cap'n Mike and some familiar members of the press.

In this Rick Brant Adventure #9: Rick and Scotty stay close to home near Spindrift Island, set mostly in an old abandoned amusement park on the New Jersey coast next to a scientific research facility. They're investigating a mysterious hit-and-run case that injured Rick's sister Barby and this time are up against hardened domestic criminals.

Rick Brant, Don Scott, Dr. Tony Briotti, and Dr. Hobart Zircon travel down to the Virgin Islands on what is planned to be a pleasure trip. The boys’ only goal is to unearth a possible sunken shipwreck and find a golden Spanish statue lost centuries before to pirates. Archaeologist Tony plans to look for submerged Native American artifacts, while physicist Zircon expects to spend time just fishing. Soon after they reach Charlotte Amalie, the boys run across JANIG security agent Steve Ames in a chance encounter on the street.

The Electronic Mind Reader, the 12th Rick Brant novel, was published in 1957 and is another JANIG-based adventure with government spook Steve Ames as one of the main characters. The story involves foreign espionage against a secret government missile project based in Washington. Steve Ames comes for help from the Spindrift Foundation after several project scientists are struck down by a mysterious neural malady that seems to cause severe aphasia and inability to communicate.

The Mystery of Scarlet Lake, the 13th Rick Brant novel, was published in 1958. In this thrilling story Rick and Scotty go to work on a project at a secret experimental rocket installation in Nevada with Spindrift Island scientist Dr. John Gordon in order to help stop the sabotage that has been plaguing the project. Only two men at the base know their real mission: to track down the saboteur who calls himself Homo Terrestrialis : “The Earthman”.

Rick and Scotty go to work on a project at an experimental rocket installation in Nevada at the request of Dr. John Gordon. Someone has been trying to sabotage the rocker launches and leaves pictures of a knight sticking a sword through a rocket. The person calls themselves The Earthman.

The Pirates of Shan is the fourteenth Rick Brant adventure, and is one of the more adventure-oriented volumes in the series. Rick and Scotty fly off to the Philippines, along with Dr. Zircon, to search for missing Doctors Briotti and Shannon. It's a similar setting to the tenth book, The Golden Skull, but takes place mainly on the Sulu Sea and the island of Shan.

In Chicago, a man whispers into a telephone: “The cat is ready.” With those four words, a chain of perilous events begins—pulling Rick Brant and his friend Don Scott into ten days of danger, intrigue, and suspense. Their official mission takes them to Egypt, where they join radio astronomers struggling to decipher strange, otherworldly signals. The anomalies defy explanation—neither terrestrial interference nor natural phenomena can account for them. The signals appear to come from light-years away, pulsing with a rhythm unlike any known star, and moving at an impossible speed.