Mark

When the third Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous was published in 1976, 30 Personal Stories originally printed in the first and second editions were omitted to make room for new stories. Lost to posterity, these stories have remained unseen by millions who got sober using the third and fourth editions of the Big Book. Vital in both their content and message, these lost stories from the early decades of AA are no less powerful today than they were when first printed in 1939 or 1955. To listen to them now is to listen to them as brand-new stories of experience, strength, and hope.

It begins with a family dinner in Princeton, New Jersey. After months at sea, US Navy Commander Scott Hagan, captain of the USS James Greer, is on leave when he is attacked by an armed man in a crowded restaurant. Hagan is shot, but he manages to fight off the attacker. Though severely wounded, the gunman reveals he is a Russian whose brother was killed when his submarine was destroyed by Commander Hagan's ship. Hagan demands to know how the would-be assassin knew his exact location, but the man dies before he says more.

Two armed men board a 727 that has been all but forgotten at an airfield in Angola. Hijacking the jet, they then slit the throat of the lone crew and fly to parts unknown. The consternation is immediate, as the CIA, FBI, and other agencies race to find out what happened, in the process elbowing one another in the sides a little too vigorously. Fed up, the president of the United States turns to an outside investigator to determine the truth.

From the internationally best-selling author of the acclaimed novel The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping, ripped-from-the-headlines story of power, corruption, revenge, and justice spanning the past decade of the Mexican-American drug wars.