Bea Kingsley is a strong willed and independent girl who finds herself traveling with her intrepid grandmother Bunty and Godfather Theodore Logan, to the tropical islands of Aru supposedly to see the exotic but reclusive Raptors of Paradise. She soon finds out that the real reason they are there is to search for answers as to why her parents disappeared off the island. This brings them to the attention of Christian Hayter who controls all the hunting on the island. Has he something to do with the disappearance of Bea’s parents eleven years earlier? They don’t get the answers they expected and when Bea discovers a strange feral boy living alongside a troop of fearsome shadow raptors, fate turns their fortunes around as they discover he is actually her long-lost brother Carter.

Carter Kingsley knew deep down that he did not belong living amongst the clan of shadow raptors that raised him from a baby, but he also never felt connected to the other humans he saw living on his island. It’s not until he meets and helps Bea, Bunty and Theodore does he step bravely from the world he knows and off the island to see what is over the horizon. Throughout the series of books Carter learns to become more human but his strange wild past is always with him. Carter has a unique affinity with all saurs but is this nature or nurture or is he according to the beliefs of the secretive Saurman ‘the chosen one’? 

Buster the Black Dwarf Tyrant was captured on the island of Sumatra and kept as a pet by Christian Hayter. Trained the hard way he was made to wear a saddle and be ridden by his old master who beat him into submission with his sharp and cruel bull hook. When he was shown kindness by Bea and Carter he soon changed his alliance and joined them on the rest of  their amazing adventure.

Theodore Logan’s rough and ready appearance hides a more fragile and broken man who not only endured many hardships growing up in the East End of London but was also heavily traumatised from the Great War. Luckily, after running away from home and stowing aboard a ship destined for the new world, America, the young Theodore was taken in by Sidney and Bunty Brownlee and raised alongside their youngest daughter Grace. The Kingsley boys, Cash and Franklin, lived on the ranch next door and their friendship form the backdrop of the adventure series.

Christian Hayter is one nasty person to meet. Like Theodore, Hayter also came from the East End of London but chose a very different path that lead to him becoming the governor of the Aru islands where he traps and sells endangered exotic saurs on the black market. He has also captured and trained a black dwarf tyrant called ‘the Beast’ to help him strike fear in anyone who stands in his way. In book 1 Hayter’s world begins to unravel when Bunty, Theodore and Bea come asking questions about the disappearance eleven years earlier of Bea’s parents. Has the past finally caught up with Christian Hayter?

Billo ‘Biggie’ Tewaka is a larger than life local spice trader on Aru who prefers to make his money playing away from the rules set out by the island’s governor Christian Hayter. Refusing to have anything to do with the illegal hunting on the island, he is known to apply his cunning to break their traps and even sabotage their depot to halt and slow down their cruel work. However he is hesitant when asked to guide Bea, Bunty and Theodore into the jungle to try and see the illusive Raptors of Paradise as he knows very well how dangerous the island has become.

Sammy and Junior work the docks in Koto Baru on the main island of Wokan in the islands of Aru servicing the many cargo boats that come and go along the spice routes. Sammy is one serious businessman for a nine year old and together with his colourfully painted Kylosaur Junior (who is actually quite old and grumpy if he has not had a bath or eaten) make sure new arrivals to the island get what they need in return for a handsome fee. His parents Billo ‘Biggie’ and Jara Tewaka all have many jobs to do and they know everyone’s business, especially that of the hunters and the evil Christian Hayter.

Kunava is a local tribesman who dresses in not much more than feathers form the many exotic raptors of paradise. Armed with his bow and arrow he hunts and lives the traditional way and  has vowed to try and protect the island’s saurs from the white hunters who take more than they need without any respect for the beautiful creatures. He mysteriously wears a shadow raptor’s claw like a glove over a stunted hand that he claims was cut from him eleven years earlier and has ‘newly grown back’. Does Kunava know more than he is telling about the disappearance of Grace and Franklin Kingsley?

Ranjit Baptt is a very well respected Sikh who owns the Nairobi Polo Club in Kenya and is an old family friend of Bunty Brownlee. Together, with her late husband Sydney, Ranjit imported steam trains from India to Africa that helped build the xxx railway that opened up transportation routes into Africa. They then imported and bred allosaurs and introduced the sport of Polo to Africa.

Viscount Lambert Knuter by coincidence claims to be Carter Kingsley’s godfather after it is discovered he met with Grace and Franklin Kingsley in Aru just after Carter’s birth. He was also present when they mysteriously died and reveals that he took Franklin’s journal to study. He is the sole owner of the Sauria Trading Company, a global empire that owns everything from airlines, shipping, firearms and food products such as SPAW made from processed saur meat. Together with his curious wife Anya, they live a privileged lifestyle and appear to sit somewhere well above the law.

The Stegosorcerer is the very old wise man who lives with the nomadic Steggi tribe located in central Kenya. His staff is made to represent a Stegosaurs tail with four thagomizers (the bony pointed spikes set in the end of a stegosaurs tail) splayed out. His appearance is somewhat confusing as he wears a bow tie and wristwatch along with his more traditional steggi red robes. It is later learned in book 2: The Stegosorcerer, that he is originally from a more ancient and secretive tribe of wisemen known as Saurmen.

Sholo and Shia are brother and sister who, with their extended family, live with the nomadic Steggi tribe located in central Kenya. Traditionally the children of the tribe own and look after the majestic stegosaurs who live in symbiosis with the tribe. One of Shia’s daily tasks is looking after and incubating the stegosaurs eggs while Sholo builds dung fires to give warmth at night and produce a white ash which, when mixed with water, produces the fine clay used to adorn the stegosaurs with handprints to identify them and protect them from the heat and insects.

Grace Kingsley is Bunty and Sydney’s youngest daughter. After moving to California with her parents at the age of nine, Grace became immersed in American culture and eventually fell in love and married Franklin Kingsley who lived with his brother Cash on the ranch next to her parents.

Geraldine Brownlee is Bunty and Sydney Brownlee’s eldest daughter. Choosing to stay in England at boarding school when her parents moved to America with her younger sister Grace, Geraldine became a more independent woman. Her holidays were spent in her parents Californian stud ranch where she shared a lot of time with Theodore Logan. Later when he moved back to England to serve in the Royal Allosaur Cavalry they became an item but after the war they split up. She then moved to a posting in the orient where she applied her language skills to teach English to the Emperor of Japan’s children and niece.

Barbara ‘Bunty’ Brownlee is Bea and Carter’s kind but sometimes overbearing grandmother. After her youngest daughter Grace disappeared with her husband Franklin, Bunty became very protective of their daughter Bea. In book 1: Raptors of Paradise, Bunty discovers her long-lost grandson Carter and in book 2: The Stegosorcerer, takes them both to her safari lodge in Kenya built by her late husband Sydney Brownlee. Her estranged eldest daughter Geraldine lives on the other side of the world in Japan as a governess to the Emperor’s niece.