Book 1: Jake Fonko M.I.A (Vietnam/Cambodia 1975) Book 2: Fonko on the Carpet (Iran 1978 - 1979) Book 3: Fonko's Errand Go Boom (Northern Ireland 1982) Jake Fonko M.I.A. – Saigon, 1975. Ex-surfer Jake Fonko's latest mission - locate a former CIA asset gone missing in Cambodia - has his Army Ranger instincts on full alert. He might be handsome, fit and a decorated warrior, but he's certainly no international spy. But Jake, ever the good soldier, agrees to the CIA's directive, trudging over the border to Phnom Penh. But relying on his training, keen observations and ironic sense of humor might not be enough to save Jake, as one surprise after another pops up on his way to the wild truth. Maybe that asset was never really missing at all. Fonko on the Carpet – Tehran, 1978. Running low on cash, ex-surfer and former Army Ranger Jake Fonko receives a freelance referral from an unlikely source: a certain Shah requires a capable bodyguard. The splintering Iranian factions have been growing restless, and the Shah’s popularity is beginning to wane. But when the country falls, Jake soon discovers that friends of the Shah are no longer welcome—and he'll have to rely on his extensive training, capable tongue and ironic wit if he wants to survive Tehran and escape in one piece. Fonko’s Errand Go Boom – Belfast, 1982. When an old surfing buddy refers ex-Army Ranger turned soldier of fortune Jake Fonko to a cutting-edge car manufacturer in need of his unique skill set, Jake ships off to Belfast. But with Northern Ireland embroiled in the Troubles, Jake's attempts to protect the factory from impending civil war soon turn into a much more basic struggle to survive the escalating conflict. In order to get out alive, Jake must become a double-agent for both sides—a tricky situation that'll require all his skills, satirical wit and training if he wants to get out alive.

    With the help of childhood friends, he learns to watch others around him and mimic their behaviors, in order to conceal the fact that his mind operates more like a computer that he has spent years programming. That program is what allows Noah to pass himself off as normal, by establishing parameters of right and wrong that are completely inviolable to him.As a young adult, Noah finds structure in the U.S. Army, and becomes an excellent and exemplary soldier, but when his self-imposed programming is put to the test by the murderous acts of the superior officer, Noah finds himself quickly made expendable, charged with crimes he did not commit and facing the possibility of execution. Without any reasonable hope for a reprieve, Noah's logic-based mind accepts his fate.Sometimes, though, things are not all as they seem to be, and Noah is offered one chance to save himself. It was his disability, his lack of emotion, that made him the soldier he had become. Now, an ultrasecret organization known as E & E wants Noah's talents, offering him a chance to survive…As the most deadly assassin the world has ever known.

    Yet even the most deliberate plans can go sideways. On his campaign south, the Marine’s “inner idiot” takes charge, leaving a smattering of dead bodies in his wake.In the dark before dawn, a telephone rings. Kern County Sheriff’s detective Lucas “Lucky” Dey, no stranger to being awakened with bad news, answers the call. But this time, the voice on the phone tells Lucky that his ill-fated younger brother has been gunned down on a blackened desolate highway.As Lucky chases the former Marine and his black semi-rig into the bowels of Los Angeles, he’s thrust into a landscape of competing agendas. Conrad Ellis, the multi-millionaire entertainment mogul, demands justice for the murder of his starlet daughter. Ambitious federal attorney Lilly Zoller is determined to turn any opportunity into her personal spotlight. Rey Palomino, the morally challenged contractor, colludes with the former Marine hoping to crawl out from under a crushing debt. LAPD detective and dedicated single mom Lydia "Gonzo" Gonzales, reluctantly accepts her assignment to "babysit" the unrestrained Kern County detective hell-bent on avenging his brother's death at any cost.A knee-breaking private detective, some unwitting feds, and a coterie of gang-busting L.A. Sheriffs deputies further complicate the scenario and round out the cast of characters in this explosive and unpredictable thrill ride.

    Assigned to the case is Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn. Fitzjohn is a detective from the old guard, whose methodical, painstaking methods are viewed by some as archaic. His relentless pursuit for the killer zeros in on Alex’s brother, James, as a key suspect in his investigation. Compelled to clear himself of suspicion, James starts his own investigation and finds himself immersed in a web of intrigue, ultimately uncovering long hidden secrets about his brother’s life that could easily be the very reasons he was murdered. This gripping tale of murder and suspense winds its way through the university’s hallowed halls to emerge into the beautiful, yet unpredictable, Blue Mountain region where more challenges and obstacles await James in his quest to clear himself of suspicion and uncover the truth about his brother. MURDER AT THE ROCKS When Laurence Harford, a prominent businessman and philanthropist is found murdered in the historic Rocks area of Sydney, Detective Chief Inspector Fitzjohn is asked to solve the crime quickly and discreetly. After barely starting his investigation, uncovering a discarded mistress and disgruntled employees, a second killing occurs. Meanwhile, Laurence’s nephew, Nicholas Harford, has his certainties in life shaken when he becomes a suspect in his uncle’s death, and receives a mysterious gold locket that starts a chain of events unravelling his family’s dark truths. ONCE UPON A LIE Little did, businessman and entrepreneur, Michael Rossi know that the telephone call he answered on that fateful Friday would be the catalyst for his death, and the subsequent recovery of his body from the waters of Sydney Harbour the following morning. Recalled from leave to take on the case, Detective Chief Inspector Fitzjohn confronts the first of many puzzles; how Rossi spent the unaccountable hours before he died. This leads him on a paper-trail into a tangled web of deception, jealousy and greed that unravels the mystery surrounding Michael’s death. Unaware of her nephew’s fate, Esme Timmons retires for the evening, unsuspecting of the events about to unfold; events that will, ultimately, expose a grim lie, buried deep in the past.

    It reveals the back-story of Mirza Mansoor, a former Indian Special Forces soldier turned PRIMAL operative. *** The year is 1999 and tensions between Pakistan and India are at breaking point. When critical intelligence prompts a cross border raid Indian Para Commandos arrive too late to prevent the deployment of a team of Lashkar terrorists. Mirza Mansoor, a Special Group operative and his partner Himesh Arjun, are all that stands between highly trained jihadists and their sinister objectives. As they track their quarry from the mountains of Kashmir to India’s capital they realize that terrorism is not the only threat they face. In the poverty-stricken slums of New Delhi crime and terror have free reign, greed is king, life is cheap, and heroes are few and far between. *** FROM THE AUTHOR This story is set just after the Kargil war between India and Pakistan, the closest these two nuclear-armed states have come to full-scale conflict. Having been defeated at Kargil, ISI and terrorist proxies escalated operations against India, which culminated in the 2008 Mumbai attack, resulting in over 600 casualties. During this time, the NSG, India’s lead counter-terrorism response unit, was severely under-resourced and -equipped. It’s in this setting of extreme contrasts, corruption, and terrorist threat that I’ve crafted a backstory for one of PRIMAL’s favorite characters.

     There’s no doubt their discovery is worth ten times that much. But will any one of them live if they refuse? At the same time, the greatest technological advancement in warfare since the creation of the Atomic bomb has been discovered, and is being offered to the highest bidder. There is just one problem though; the seller might no longer have any control of the weapon. Can Sam Reilly weave his way through the web of industrial and political espionage before the human race loses its greatest fight for survival? The Cassidy Project In the middle of the Pacific Ocean in 1962, at the height of the cold war, the U.S. military experimented with electromagnetic pulses created by detonating high atmosphere nuclear bombs. The project was code named Starfish Prime. The primary objective was to develop the ability to produce an EMP with enough force to knock out an entire nation’s communications, rendering a retaliatory attack impossible. The secondary objective, along with its consequences, was deemed too important to national security to ever be released. In 1983 an American B52 Nuclear Bomber goes missing somewhere near the Bering Strait while delivering a secret cargo at the express order of President Ronald Reagan to an unmapped island. Present day, in the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica, a woman wakes up on a cruise ship to discover she’s the only person left aboard, despite no apparent fault with the ship. Sam Reilly, already on a rescue mission to Antarctica to save five French scientists, may be the only person standing in the way of the completion of The Cassidy Project. The Nostradamus Equation In 1562, Michel de Nostradamus led a small party on an expedition deep into the hostile Desert of Barbary, now known as the Sahara. Without any knowledge of what they might find, the small party had entered the vast desert in search of a miracle. In the present day, Dr. Zara Delacroix enlists the help of Sam Reilly to hunt for answers about a book she believes was buried in the Sahara centuries earlier to protect humanity from some great catastrophe. This ancient manuscript was named The Book of Nostradamus. . .

    In 1986, while Kate was a college student at Sweet Briar in western Virginia, she was raped and witnessed a murder. Kate’s eyewitness testimony convicts a man who’s released more than 20 years later based on DNA evidence. The development isn’t a complete surprise to Kate, who has lived with the knowledge that she perjured herself. Her life since the trial has been a disappointment, and her social life is limited by her possessive and creepy father, Pop, who keeps her on a tight leash. That constraint becomes even more difficult to bear when Kate, who works as a landscaper, falls for a gardener, Tony, and hopes she has found the love of her life. Things don’t go smoothly, and more blood is shed along the way to a jaw-dropping, but logical, climax that will make veteran mystery readers eager for more of Buhmann’s work. Big Al's Books & Pals 2014 Readers' Choice Awards: Mystery Nominee Twenty years ago, Kate Cranbrook’s eyewitness testimony sent the wrong man to prison for rape and murder. When new evidence exonerates him, Kate says that in the darkness and confusion, she must have mistaken her attacker’s identity. She is lying. Kate would like nothing better than to turn her back on the past, but she is trapped in a stand-off with the real killer. When a body turns up on her doorstep, she resorts to desperate measures to free herself once and for all from a secret that is ruining her life.

    Twenty-one years old and Annette Roberta Randall is searching, looking for herself. The perception and sensitivity she relied on to bolster her through an isolated childhood have disappeared and with them her sense of self. Nettie also seeks the truth, information about her dysfunctional family and the mysteries that whisper to her in their eccentric family home. She receives glimpses in the alcohol induced monologues of her mother, Delores Cecelia, “DeCe”. However, DeCe lost herself long before Nettie was born, and she buried her secrets so deep, even the spirits haunting her cannot unlock her soul. Pup, Nettie’s peculiar uncle, may have witnessed the most recent chaos, but he cannot communicate what he knows for sure. Nettie’s struggles are apparent to her extended family and neighbors, but only she can resolve to overcome the pull of the notorius Kirkland family and Berclaire mansion. The secrets fester and DeCe clings to them like the neglected ivy tendrils on the shadowed side of the mansion. Slowly, the truth will unfold, but will it be enough to free Nettie, or the undoing of her mother, DeCe? Nettie believed it was possible her grandfather, Old Nate, was responsible for the hauntings at the Berclaire mansion, but the more she learns of her great grandmother, Roberta, she decides he might have been a victim, also. DeCe had been taking pills and drinking alcohol from before the time she was a teenager, attempting to numb herself to her dysfunctional family. Nettie could only guess at a history during her drunken orations about DeCe's childhood. Nettie knows she is the seventh child born to DeCe, the others gone before Nettie was born. Some would filter back into her life, but would they help her learn more about her identity, or bring more pain?

    General Trusten Polk dies in an exploding F-16 in Denver, and within hours he's exposed as an impostor; a war hero politician controlled by others. Boyd finds another pilot from Polk's past is releasing secrets to the press.Congressman Roscoe Kelly is implicated in bank fraud and other politicians with ties to Polk duck and weave. The press smells blood and political corruption dominates the news cycle. Is The Other Pilot a patriot or a criminal? Where did all that money come from?Boyd races to find The Other Pilot, as signs point to a criminal mastermind with a lust for revenge.The spark to start civil war in America is on a ranch in west Texas. Boyd, his English teacher lover, flight surgeon pal, a vintage aircraft enthusiast with a P-51 Mustang, and a small town sheriff are the nation's last line of defense.

     He was forty-five and time was running out when fate dealt him an unexpected opportunity. The company was old, staid and well-respected but it was under performing and Aspine was determined to turn it around no matter who he had to crush. Soon he was at war with the company's employees, unions, suppliers, financiers and co-directors but nothing was going to stop him. Not his chairman, not his wife, not his mistress, not the anonymous death threats and definitely not the press. Aspine could almost taste the glory, the riches and peer recognition he'd craved for so long. He knew he had countless detractors and enemies who he contemptuously labelled "losers"and paid no heed to. Would this prove to be a miscalculation of monumental proportions or would he prevail?

    Her body was discovered days later, her beautiful face bashed in with a rock. Police determine her brutal death to be a mugging gone wrong and drop the matter into their cold case files.Over a year later, Tracy’s sister, Sondra, still can’t come to grips with what happened. She throws herself into her work as a documentary filmmaker to try and forget the cruelty of her sister’s death. However, a chance encounter with a man from Tracy’s past rips the wound open and sends Sondra on a desperate search for answers about the secrets from her sister’s life that may have led to her death.As Sondra struggles to uncover what happened to Tracy, she’s launched into a tangled web of deceit and danger that put her on a collision course with life and death…

    The Solar Temple. Heaven's Gate. In the summer of 1990, the Payson Church of Tomorrow joins the ranks of those infamous cult suicides when thirty-four members burn to death on a small island off the coast of Maine. At ten years old, Payson member Erin Solomon watches helplessly as the church and its congregation are reduced to ash and embers.More than twenty years later, Erin is an accomplished investigative journalist when she receives word that she has inherited Payson Isle... and all its ghosts. She returns to Maine to learn the truth behind the tragedy that has haunted her since childhood, aided by the rakish mentor who's stood by her side since she was a teenager, her trusty mutt Einstein, and a mysterious stranger with his own dark past.Soon, Erin is enmeshed in violence, conspiracy, and scandal, as she fights to unearth the secrets of the Payson Church of Tomorrow -- secrets someone will kill to keep buried.

     Gloria is heading to meet her friend Rhetty in a bar. Once close, the two friends have drifted apart. Rhetty is different now, a shadow of her former self, and it all goes back to an incident that occurred four years ago. They meet at the same bar as always. It’s a sleazy venue. Gloria is uncomfortable there. She has a recollection of something terrible happening at the place, but can’t recall any details. Rhetty is agitated. She tells Gloria something that can’t be true. That another acquaintance of theirs, a bolshie woman called Joanna, is back on the scene. It can’t be true because Joanna died four years ago. What is Rhetty trying to achieve when she convinces Gloria to return to where Joanna died? And why is Gloria, despite her reservations, ready to go along with her? Why did Joanna die, and how is it possible she could return?

    What he finds is beyond imagining. It unleashes a mystery older than recorded time, rewrites human history, and promises to change the planet’s future. It must be suppressed.The most powerful forces in the world align against him, and a deadly competition for the artifact ensues. Capturing Gaines is not enough--everyone who has seen the artifact must be killed. His only hope is to stay alive long enough to decode the Cosega Sequence. Dig far enough into the past . . . you may just discover the future.

    More abductions and killings soon follow. Justin Riddley, recently transferred to the island’s small college, faces growing evidence that one of his new friends and fellow students may be the murderer. John Marshall, redemption-seeking captain of the local police force, leads the frantic murder investigation and struggles to figure out whether the killings are tied to the island's dark and violent past. Tormented by tragic wartime memories, and more convinced with each day that it is humanity’s fate to destroy itself, Marshall races against both the murderer and the specter of his own mental breakdown. As blood continues to spill, Riddley and Marshall wonder whether there may be a dark, universal force that drives evil deeds great and small, and whether the nature of one’s childhood might sometimes, in the end, be all that separates the saint from the psychopath.