South American Mystery

Jake Scarne has retired. But he has mixed feelings about it. He suspects that there is more to life than golf outings and sojourns down the Jersey Shore. Little does he know that some of his old skills will come in handy when the Staten Island Ferry he is on is hijacked! The hijackers claim they are terrorists. But their real motives are more venal. Scarne avails himself of possibly the most unusual ally he's ever had. But there is death and tragedy in this twisty tale that reminds some critics of two classic movies: DIE HARD and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE-TWO-THREE. “IF YOU LIKE HARD-...

“Dispute in progress, lethal weapons involved.” Deputy Pegasus Quincy takes the call to resolve violence on a Friesian horse ranch in Arizona. Intent on his own personal vendetta, partner Shepherd Malone refuses to declare a murder in a fatal fire at the ranch. Peg unwisely circumvents the law to investigate anyway. Two families feuding over water rights, a Gypsy clan suspected of drug dealing, and a blackmailer on the loose, all lead Pegasus astray on her quest to find the killer in a desert mountain town beset by flash floods and arsenic-laced creeks.

A sudden disappearance, an island escape, the boy from her past, a raging blizzard of secrets and fear, another woman’s betrayal & the quiet suffering of a broken heart. She’d known the boy he was and it had never been a secret that she loved him with all her heart...then walked away...her dreams and hopes lost. Years later her life depends on the man he’s become. Dark secrets and twisted truths...hidden clues and unexpected danger...a lost island of dreams and mystery...faded hope. There was only time to grab her purse and the small keepsake box she couldn’t leave behind. She had ...

As a young man, Virgil Moody vowed he would never be like his father, he would never own slaves. When he moves from his father's plantation in Savannah to New Orleans, he takes with him Annie, a tiny woman with sharp eyes and a sharper tongue, who he is sure would not survive life on the plantation. She'll be much safer with him, away from his father's cruelty. And when he discovers Annie's pregnancy, already a few months along, he is all the more certain that he made the right decision. As the years pass, the divide between Moody's assumptions and Annie's reality widens ever further.

In No Road Home, Sam Grodin emerges from ten years in a brutal South American prison, alone, lost, and forced to start over. Wrongfully convicted and abandoned in a foreign land his only comfort the fading memory of his Mary, and the hope that she still waits for him but, every day without her deepens his longing. Beyond the prison walls hides its dangers, where every step forward pulls Sam deeper into a labyrinth of betrayal, haunting memories, and powerful forces that will stop at nothing to protect their secrets. Sam must face terrifying truths to survive. Drawn to a beautiful, ...

“The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether” is an Edgar Allan Poe short story that expertly blends his dark perspective with the comic. -This is the original story—only word order and difficult vocabulary have been updated. -End notes, interpretation, and discussion of major themes follow the text. -Biographical information on Edgar Allan Poe is included. -For other classic short stories in easy to understand updated English search for “Simplified for Modern Readers Series.”