In Gary life and travels through Greece, he has developed a keen sense for the land known as "Hellas". Mr. Van Haas is the author of THE IKON, which is a lively Greek island thriller set on Mykonos, and has recently completed another sequel thriller to his ‘Garth Hanson’ action adventure series called, MALABAR RUN set in Goa, India, and also has a new book soon to be released called, IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT GREECE, which is said to be one of the most comprehensive and compelling travel-historical works completed to date.
 

Won 3rd Place for Best Screenplay in Screenwriter Magazine Competition

Gary has recently completed THE CHRYSANTHEMUM THRONE, a remarkably well-written colorful, dramatic account of the workings and inner sanctum of Japanese life and culture during Emperor Hirohito’s reign in The Imperial Court. The story follows the emergence of Japan as a growing super power before and after WW II seen through the eyes of Hirohito's most trusted companion, ‘Dr. Taki Akira’. This is a marvelous thought-provoking tale, rich in fact and historical background.

THE IKON Greek island thriller
THE IKON is an exciting, action-packed thriller, which takes place on the jet-set island of Myconos, surrounding the seedy world of art and antiquities dealers and smugglers. Riding on the huge success of ‘The DaVinci Code’ and action scenes of the hit movie, 'Romancing the Stone' with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, “'THE IKON” is a modern day “Maltese Falcon” style adventure-thriller, which evolves around a group of international antiquities thieves living on Mykonos, Greece. In this fascinating story, the lead and main character, Garth Hanson, a down on his luck artist, is blackmailed into making a copy of a world famous icon in Greece, and becomes inadvertently involved in a dizzying sphere of international intrigue, passionate love and brutal murder. The colourful cast of characters all come to life on the exotic jet-set island of Mykonos for the suspense-filled ending, where all characters converge for one purpose alone --- To steal a gem-studded icon worth millions of dollars… The twist is, that there's something more to the icon than jewels and diamonds- something of international importance and consequence, that could very well change the course of the world as we knew it! This is a classic tale with all the intrigue abut to be a major block-buster film.

MALABAR RUN
Artist-detective, ‘Garth Hanson’, is thrown in to a whirlwind of romance and international intrigue as he takes off for India to visit his old friend and mentor, Dr. Shrini Raman who owns a posh hip nightclub scene and restaurant set on the pristine beaches of Goa in the popular Baga Beach resort area. There’s the usual suspects and a large cast of characters that all come to life in the lush exotic jungle setting including a group of rowdy British barbarian Hell’s Angel’s bikers as well as Islamic radicals, sexual predators, jet-setters, hustlers, and drug dealers selling everything from hashish to opium. While In Goa, Hanson meets a wild, attractive local Indian girl named, Gita, who lives with her niece on a deserted beach and rents him a house nearby and a relationship blooms. The problem is, there’s a crazed psycho-killer on the loose murdering young girls and others in his deadly path. In the end Garth has to investigate to find out who it is and why the murderer is to save Gita’s life!