For Sam, years of infertility, followed by an unthinkable tragedy, have left her despairing of ever having a child. Money is tight, and IVF is expensive. Sam’s only hope may be to ask her sister to be a surrogate. Alex will do anything for Sam, but when the sisters embark upon an unorthodox route to surrogacy, jealousy, guilt, and legal complications soon follow.As the limits of sisterly devotion are tested, the family’s hidden wounds and secret addictions come to light, shaking the foundation of their marriages and their lives.An emotional story of a woman’s struggle with infertility and a riveting book about the complexities of family, Across the Street makes an excellent selection for book clubs.

    What she doesn't expect is for Bentley to ensnare her in her own story of becoming a controversial World War II spy and Cold War informer...Recruited by the American Communist Party to spy on fascists at the outbreak of World War II, a young Bentley--code name Clever Girl--finds she has an unexpected gift for espionage. But after falling desperately in love with her handler, Jacob Golos, Elizabeth makes another unexpected discovery when she learns her lover is actually a Russian spy. Together, they will build the largest Soviet spy network in America and Elizabeth will become its uncrowned Red Spy Queen. However, once the war ends and the U.S. and U.S.S.R. become embroiled in the Cold War, it is Elizabeth who will dangerously clash with the NKVD, the brutal Soviet espionage agency.As Catherine listens to Elizabeth's harrowing tale, she empathizes with her, that is, until she uncovers startling revelations that link the two women's lives in shocking ways. Faced with the idea that her entire existence is based on a lie, Catherine realizes there can be many sides to the truth. And only Elizabeth Bentley can tell her what that truth really is.

    Shurka, her beloved husband and their two small children lived in a pretty house in a village in Poland, surrounded by a little garden with lilies. This was their life and nothing could harm it, or so they thought…WWII broke out and though the happy family thought the Germans would never reach their idyllic village, they quickly understood they were wrong and their happiness came to a brutal end. The family had to flee their house and find shelter in a neighboring Ghetto where they realized that the Gestapo was taking Jews away on trucks every night, and they were never seen again.The family decided to escape into the deep dark forest. There, surrounded by animals, they knew that this was their only chance to get away from the real beasts. They had no idea what would await them, but they knew that doing nothing was not an option if they wanted to survive.

    But this is Germany, 1938. Their union is against Nazi laws, as Anna is part-Jewish. A Gestapo officer agrees to authorize the marriage, but only if Max infiltrates and betrays a Marxist resistance cell, the Red Orchestra. This is not an assignment that Max can refuse. If he succeeds, Anna will get the wedding she longs for, but many brave resistance fighters will die… What early reviewers are saying about the book: JJ Toner does a fabulous job of lacing fact and fiction together. I do not often give a five-star rating, but this story surprised me, educated me, and entertained me. There was never a dull moment. Well done. JJ Toner captures perfectly the sense of paranoia and fear that prevailed in Berlin during the Third Reich, especially in the years 1938 to 1945. The convoluted intermingling of different agencies, organizations and ministries, and over all the terror of the SS and its departments, is well set out. It was really a matter of who you knew, not what you knew, if you wanted to progress. The fact that the novel is based on the actual story of the Rote Kapelle only adds to the tension

    Japan’s war machine was pounding wreckage into ashes—wiping out a city that had thrived since the time of Genghis Khan. One of the few buildings still standing is the American consulate where one hundred and sixteen US refugees are facing almost certain death, either from high explosives, the ravages of starvation or Asiatic cholera. Unbeknownst to the refugees, their fate rests in the hands of one Marine-- Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell--and his ability to negotiate two hundred miles of occupied territory in order to bring desperately needed gold and medicine, while overcoming bullets, dive bombers, butchery and his own personal nemesis—alcohol. Add to these seemingly insurmountable odds, a seductive American fan-dancer who hitches along for the ride and saving the lives of the hostages is far from a fait accompli.As a young man, Hubbard visited Manchuria, where his closest friend headed up British intelligence in northern China.  Hubbard gained a unique insight into the hostile political climate between China and Japan—a knowledge that informs stories like Orders Is Orders. In addition, he served as a First Sergeant with the 20th United States Marine Corps Reserve—giving him first-hand knowledge of what it means to be a Marine. “Demonstrating his unique ability to relate even to the most complicated story with a keen eye for detail and realism, Hubbard’s stunning writing ability and creative imagination set him apart as one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century.” —Publishers Weekly #NewGoldenAge

    In the Pas de Calais, Nathalie Mercier, a young British Special Operations Executive secret agent working with the French Resistance, disappears. In London, her husband Owen Quinn, an officer with Royal Navy Intelligence, discovers the truth about her role in the Allies' sophisticated deception at the heart of D-Day. Appalled but determined, Quinn sets off on a perilous hunt through France in search of his wife. With the help of the Resistance he finds Nathalie, but then the bitterness of war and its insatiable appetite for revenge, catch up with them in dramatic fashion. Based on real events of the Second World War The Best of Our Spies is a thrilling tale of international intrigue, love, deception and espionage.

    On the heels of her mother’s illness and crushing death, she's pulled into a seventy-four year old mystery by a chance discovery on a Norwegian glacier. 1945: RCAF Squadron Leader Jack Barton flies combat missions over occupied Europe. Major Günther Graf, a war-weary and disillusioned Luftwaffe pilot, is trapped in the unspeakable horrors of Nazi Germany. Their paths, so different yet so similar, are connected by a young victim of appalling cruelty.A story of love and loss, cruelty and kindness, guilt and redemption, EO-N's sweeping narrative takes readers on a riveting journey—from the destruction and cruelty of war to the relentless pressures of contemporary corporate greed—weaving together five seemingly separate lives to remind us that individual actions matter and that courage comes in many forms.

    Told from the individual perspectives of an FBI agent, an undercover agent within the group, a convert to the terrorist organization, and a writer on the edges of the whole affair, this is another tightly wound thriller, and an intimate exploration of the people behind the politics, from a master of suspense.

    Porritt has no leads until Jane, a young British translator, unwittingly gets caught up with a German spy trying to flee the country. Can Porritt use his Special Branch teams in Glasgow, Yorkshire, London and Belfast to rescue Jane and smash the undercover spy organisation before Churchill’s invasion plans get leaked? This deftly plotted, action-packed spy thriller is full of twists and turns. Carefully weaving fact and fiction, it provides powerful and intriguing lessons that still apply in today’s changing world.

    They survived a harrowing journey from Germany to England, only to be separated upon their arrival. Daniel vowed to find Brigitte after the war, a promise he has fought to fulfill for more than seventy years.Now a wealthy old man, Daniel's final hope in finding Brigitte rests with Quenby Vaughn, an American journalist working in London. He believes Quenby's tenacity to find missing people and her personal investment in a related WWII espionage story will help her succeed where previous investigators have failed. Though Quenby is wrestling her own demons--and wary at the idea of teaming up with Daniel's lawyer, Lucas Hough--the lure of Brigitte's story is too much to resist. Together, Quenby and Lucas delve deep into the past, following a trail of deception, sacrifice, and healing that could change all of their futures.A 2018 Christy Award finalist!

    Inspired by the author’s own experiences of US military operations during the Vietnam War, Boot is a debut literary novel that charts the journey of Marine George Orwell Hill, known affectionately as G. O. by his brothers-in-arms, as he comes to grips with the psychological impacts of war in the jungles and rice paddies of Southeast Asia. Faced with military life ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, G. O. must navigate the absurdity of warfare and suppress his humanity to survive psychologically. The war challenges his presuppositions—about the world, about life, about himself—as soon as he lands in Vietnam. And his pondering deep questions about humanity becomes a fruitless task in a situation forcing him to accept life for what it is in every gory, absurd detail. Boot is a credible contribution to new literary fiction about the Vietnam War, combining satire and psychology in historical fiction.

    Throughout the city, people are dying of starvation and frostbite, and Karen knows that if she doesn’t escape immediately, she will share their fate. If she has any hope of leaving Russia and reuniting with her fiancé, Bobby, in New York, she must do the impossible: cross enemy lines and then stow away.On her harrowing journey, Karen encounters Petr, a young conscripted Russian soldier. She isn’t sure she can trust him—he is equally wary of her. But as the two join forces in order to stay alive, an unexpected romance takes root.Now, as Karen gets closer to the reality of escape, she has a choice to make: Will she return to a safe life in America with Bobby, or remain in war-torn Russia with Petr?

    Jewish shops have been ransacked and looted, synagogues destroyed. As storm troopers pound on his door, Otto Silbermann, a respected businessman who fought for Germany in the Great War, is forced to sneak out the back of his own home. Turned away from establishments he had long patronized, and fearful of being exposed as a Jew despite his Aryan looks, he boards a train.And then another. And another . . . until his flight becomes a frantic odyssey across Germany, as he searches first for information, then for help, and finally for escape. His travels bring him face-to-face with waiters and conductors, officials and fellow outcasts, seductive women and vicious thieves, a few of whom disapprove of the regime while the rest embrace it wholeheartedly.Clinging to his existence as it was just days before, Silbermann refuses to believe what is happening even as he is beset by opportunists, betrayed by associates, and bereft of family, friends, and fortune. As his world collapses around him, he is forced to concede that his nightmare is all too real.Twenty-three-year-old Ulrich Boschwitz wrote The Passenger at breakneck speed in 1938, fresh in the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, and his prose flies at the same pace. Taut, immediate, infused with acerbic Kafkaesque humor, The Passenger is an indelible portrait of a man and a society careening out of control.

    Soldier. Spy. Leader. Her name is Nancy Wake.To the Allies, she was a fearless freedom fighter, a special operations legend, a woman ahead of her time. To the Gestapo, she was a ghost, a shadow, the most wanted person in the world.But at first, Nancy Wake was just another young woman living in Marseilles and recently engaged to a man she loved. Then France fell to the Nazi blitzkrieg. With her appetite for danger, Nancy quickly finds herself drawn into the underground Resistance standing up to Nazi rule. Gaining notoriety as the White Mouse, with a 5-million-franc bounty hanging over her head, Wake rises to the top of the Nazi's Most Wanted list--only to find her husband arrested for treasonous activity under suspicion of being the White Mouse himself.Narrowly escaping to Britain, Wake joins the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and parachutes into the Auvergne, where she must fight for the respect of some of the toughest Resistance fighters in France. As she and her maquisards battle the Nazis, their every engagement brings the end of the war closer--but also places her husband in deeper peril.A riveting, richly imagined historical thriller, LIBERATION brings to life one of World War II's most fascinating unsung heroines in all her fierce power and complexity. This is the story of one of the one of the war's most decorated women, told like never before.

     What, then, could render two veteran homicide detectives speechless as they stand over their latest victim? Tightly-wound Dickie Jones and his smart and cocky partner, Matt “Pretty Boy Floyd” Tyler, find themselves entangled with gang members and a sexy drug dealer as they uncover a nefarious plot rife with greed, sex, and betrayal. Can law enforcement’s “odd couple” survive fights, shootouts, and a sniper who wants them dead? What about their wives, and their captain, all of whom have had it with them both? A Good Bunch of Men will have you laughing, gasping, and craving the next in the Dickie Floyd Detective series. *** “Finally, someone wrote it the way it should be written and added a few twists along the way. Real page turner.” – J. Sheehy “I was totally blown away. Unable to put the book down. Anyone with law enforcement experience MUST read this book.” – JZ “There's nothing like authenticity to set a book apart.” – Jackson “This work of fiction will take you into the heart of a homicide investigation, with its many twists and turns. Excellent character development and the story is a page-turner.” – A. Argott “If you want to know how murders are truly investigated and solved, and how homicide detectives think, walk, and talk, then A Good Bunch of Men is for you.” – J. Knight “This book gets you behind the yellow tape of a murder scene and investigation. You will feel as though you're living the life of a homicide investigator.” – Cliff Yates “I've read a lot of law enforcement type stories, and this is probably the best one yet. The author obviously writes from experience.” – George B. “But once in a while, an author comes along who has not only been there and done that, but comes to the table with an eye for plotting, dialogue, and intrigue. And when that happens, one can celebrate their literary blessings.” – Dean Scoville, Author of A Gun, A Badge, and An Attitude. “Dickie Floyd belongs on the bookshelf of every Joseph Wambaugh and Michael Connelly fan. Wambaugh and Connelly write about LAPD. The author has written the quintessential LA County Sheriff's Department novel.” – Phil “Crime, fights, guns, with laughs and a dash of booze mixed in give us an inside look at the life of homicide detectives.” – Richard Powers