The deceptive, crooked path that led him to today began a few months back. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, nineteen-year old Fleming was a professional baseball pitcher with the Chicago White Sox. His successful first year in the minor leagues was waylaid when he received his draft notice. Through a series of misadventures, he ended up enlisting for four years in an elite unit called the A.S.A. or Army Security Agency; the army’s equivalent to the N.S.A. or the National Security Agency. Once in the army, Fleming learned that the recruiter had manipulated him with a host of untruths. Then, to his dismay, he learned that the army had lost his orders and he was placed in an infantry unit. Once in Vietnam, Platoon Sergeant, Levine questioned Fleming and dragged out of him the sad story of how he had enlisted for four years and ended up in an infantry unit. He became the butt of the platoon’s jokes and underwent vicious ribbing by the other platoon members. That day, the platoon was ordered back to their base camp: L.Z. English. Before leaving, they endured a mortar attack and then a ground probe. Fleming’s foxhole mate was critically wounded. Fleming did everything he could to save the man but his wounds were too severe and he died in Fleming’s arms. Repulsed by the ordeal, Fleming was left wondering if he could endure a whole year of this. Twelve-year old Van Phan Duc and his two friends twelve-year old Hoi Anh Vanh and Dan Tri Quang lived happily in their village until the day a N.V.A. invaded and forced them to join their struggle and fight the invading Americans. They were then assigned to a Viet Cong unit where they met Sergeant Chi, the man who would train them to be soldiers for the revolution and lead them into battle. Three American soldiers had been captured. Chi ordered the three boys to participate in brutally torturing the Americans. Dan embraced the torture and it turned him into a brutal fighting machine, much to Chi’s satisfaction. On the other hand, Hoi was repulsed by the events and a part of him died that day. He performed the torture but it wasn’t to Chi’s satisfaction. Van, a devout Buddhist, was also repulsed. He realized that life, as a soldier was three hundred and sixty degrees opposite of Buddha’s spiritual path. The 173rd’s area of operations was the Central Highlands. The 173rd’s home base was in and around the town of Bong Son, but they patrolled all over the province of Binh Dinh. For the next few months, Fleming and Van’s units met on numerous occasions. The first time they engaged each other in combat was in a simple ambush that lasted only two minutes. Both men were left repulsed by the carnage that could take place in only two minutes. Right after the ambush, Fleming’s company was deployed in a battalion-sized operation located in the Dak To mountain range. It was an area where numerous North Vietnamese soldiers infiltrated into South Vietnam from neighboring Cambodia and Laos. Fleming’s company was dropped into an area far from Dak To and the men were forced to march (hump) to their final destination. During the trek, they had to carve their way through impenetrable jungle and cross leach infested rivers to reach their destination, all the while suffering under Vietnam’s oppressive heat. Van’s Viet Cong unit was sent to the Dak To mountain range to do battle with Fleming and his company. Months passed with Van and Fleming’s units constantly meeting. Both men had similar personalities. Both men overcame their initial shock at war’s brutality and became highly competent soldiers who bravely fought the enemy. Both men were ultimately made into squad leaders. Both men continued to hate the war, yet were entrapped in the insanity that was war. They both recognized what war was—a brutally insane series of events where lives were lost and where dreams died.

    Her purse has no ID, cell phone, or car keys, and her room is registered to Benjamin Franklin. She’s no drifter, though. She has two thousand dollars cash in her wallet, a ten-thousand dollar watch in her purse, and a six-thousand dollar dress on a hanger on the bathroom door.  Detective Mary Joe Court catches the case and identifies the woman as the estranged spouse of a wealthy investment advisor from St. Louis. The victim had been trying to create a new life for herself with someone she loved. Now, that will never happen.  But some seemingly innocent victims are anything but innocent. Sometimes, they’re downright dangerous.  The woman with the beautiful, rose-patterned dress carried her secrets to her grave. To find her killer, Joe has to unearth them…or risk being buried alongside her.   The Woman who wore Roses is the fifth mystery in New York Times’ bestselling author Chris Culver’s gripping Joe Court series. If you like James Patterson, David Baldacci, or Karin Slaughter, you’ll love this series.

    Perhaps it would give him a chance to question the butler about the murder of her parents. Little did he know his search for the killers would soon take a surprising turn and he would find himself helping his primary suspect instead

    A bizarre plot to kill the President. A cop with one chance to save his reputation… and his country. "An entertaining and compulsively readable thriller--on the beach or anywhere." --  Kirkus Reviews Police Officer Pepper Ryan returns home to Cape Cod for his last shot at redemption. Dumb move? He can never measure up to the ghost of his brother who died a good cop. But when a Secret Service agent’s corpse shows up in a clambake pit with a note threatening the President’s life, Ryan sees his chance to erase the past and prevent the assassination… Desperate to clear his name and protect the POTUS, Ryan confronts a tidal wave of trouble. Running afoul of mob hitmen, wacko anti-government groups, and a billionaire’s conniving daughter, he races to unravel the devious plot.Can Ryan find the assassin before it’s too late, or are his future and the President's life doomed? Beach Body Boogie is the first book in the humorous Pepper Ryan mystery-thriller series. If you like everyman heroes, thrilling twists, and laugh-out-loud moments, you’ll love Timothy Fagan’s raucous tale. Buy Beach Body Boogie to join the chase today!

    As he tries to get back, he finds something he wasn't expecting, something that points toward everything he thought he knew about the world and said, “No, it isn't like that at all.” He had a choice: pretend he hadn’t seen it, or spend the rest of his life trying to understand it. The ripples from the choice he made would, over the next two generations, spread as far as the other side of the world, and maybe, just maybe, even farther than that.This story is, however, only partly about Private Dawson. At another level, this is the story of a present-day 18-year-old boy's freshman year in college. And on a much deeper level, this is a story about what happens when you stare into Nietzsche's abyss, and the abyss does more than just stare back at you. Whether there are even more levels than that is for the reader to determine.Life is improvisational theater. You're given a name and a situation, but where the scene goes after that is up to you and the other players. The other players in this story represent every hue of the moral spectrum, from saint to sociopath, but each of them has a part to play. The props for this play include bells and pillows and bayberry candles, bullets and fireworks and plaid flannel shirts. Come on in, find your seat, and let’s cue the curtain. You’re going to enjoy this.

    Recently divorced without custody of her two young sons, Annie’s career is now stalling under the ambitions of her ruthless colleagues. John Taggart is a Scottish journalist looking to land the scoop that will secure his future. In Halifax to cover the Royal visit, John finally has a chance to understand his mother’s connection to the province, which she has always kept hidden.When two murders occur within 48 hours, they are both led to the small, picturesque town of Lunenburg and a 30-year-old murder case with a long-buried secret. The town’s dark past may hold the answers they both need, but digging it up could mean more danger than it’s worth.

    She doesn’t have time to learn what’s inside when Pa uproots her from the only home she’s ever known, leaving the mysterious trunk behind. Meanwhile, Specialist Kody Walsh focuses on his advancement in the army. Raelyn walks into his life and derails his plans. They awaken a spark inside each other, but deny their interest. Forced to work together, Raelyn and Kody find evidence that her Ma might still be alive. While hunting for the truth, the two grow closer as complications and danger arises. Will Raelyn ever find out what really happened to Ma? Will Kody tear down his walls and let Raelyn into his heart? Or will the challenges tear them apart?

    Natalie’s father, a local politician, uses the opportunity to further his career by starting a media storm, causing panic in the area. Colin and his father, a retired NBA star, come under the microscope as the sheriff investigates. All anyone expects to find is a dead body. Colin’s friends support him, but with no answers to Natalie’s whereabouts and time running out, Colin makes a wreak-less move to find her–he seeks help from a mysterious source, leading him to the truth behind Natalie’s disappearance. Colin has to make the hardest choice of his life: commit a crime or lose her forever.Fifteen years later, Colin lives the good life with a high-profile career and a trophy wife in the waiting. When three new serial murders bring the FBI to the cold Natalie Merian case, Colin must answer questions about what happened at Lake Apache. He will reckon with the past. And his sins.

    The last thing he needs is for his mother to become the suspect in a mysterious woman's death—a story he's covering for the local newspaper.Vince searches for answers and runs up against the town's irascible police chief, an untouchable influential family, and a rogue detective—who are all trying to kill the story for their own reasons. Even more mystifying is his usually opinionated mother's infuriating silence. The harder he tries to uncover the truth, the more he realizes just how deep the levels of secrecy in this small Lake Superior town really go. With each exposed lie, Vince risks losing everything: his family, friends, and reputation.As Apostle Bay—which is already divided by contentious union negotiations and teenage drug use—struggles to survive the scandal, Vince must decide just how far he's willing to delve into a world of deception, deceit, and self-discovery.

    But, when a couple asks him about an intricately carved table in his store, it brings back memories of a case that almost tore apart the islands in a gang war.

    It'll make those jerks at the Post look like idiots and Watergate look like a cop taking an apple off a fruit stand."It's 1972. The Watergate scandal has Washington on edge and Putnam, a Vietnam veteran and courier for one of the capital's leading television stations, is trying to get his life back together after his nightmarish ordeal in the war. Racing at breakneck speed through the streets of the capital, he not only intends to be the best courier in the business, he also intends to escape the demons that haunt him. But when Rick picks up film from a news crew interviewing a government worker with a hot story, his life begins to unravel as everyone involved in the story dies within hours of the interview and Rick realizes he is the next target. Enlisting the aid of friends who have discovered a way to hack into the government's computer databases, and a beautiful young Indian Rights activist, Eva Buffalo Calf, Rick races full throttle through the streets of the nation's capital to stay ahead of his pursuers as he searches for answers. When he discovers the killings have been orchestrated by a rogue CIA agent and his team of assassins, Rick isn't surprised when his road to the truth leads directly to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

    Only one test says otherwise—the carbon date performed in 1988. A serial killer with a fetish for fire targets the faithful of Tucson, Arizona. Homicide detective, Pete Johnston, works to catch the killer before more clergy are killed, before more churches are burned. His daughter, Amari, is a criminal justice major at the University of Arizona. When the Shroud is carbon dated at her university, the results reveal that the relic is a medieval forgery. Amari investigates this ancient cold case file for a class project and makes a shocking discovery that could alter the fate of Christianity. She teams up with Dr. Kevin Brenner, a brilliant young experimental physicist, and together they gather evidence so they can plead their case to the Vatican—unless the killer can stop them first. Her father desperately tries to protect her and catch the killer before she becomes his next victim. If Ted Dekker and Christy Barritt collaborated on a mystery/suspense novel, it would read like this. .

    The town's people believe the suicide was another tragic result of bullying, but the two boys have learned the true reason their friend took his own life, and decide to take matters into their own hands. Detective Dean Daly is called in to investigate the brutal murders and believes there is much more to the murders than first appears. Not far away, a young housewife, Sarah, is in a very bad place. Her husband Gerald finally crosses the line from verbal abuse to physical abuse and breaks her arm. She takes flight in the middle of the night, and Gerald vows he will track her down to the ends of the ends of time, and insists she can never leave him. Detective Daly soon becomes involved in both events, not knowing that he will soon be caught in the middle as the two stories collide. This is a story about courage, strength, and standing up for what you believe

    And that's not even the worst thing he's come home to. And just so you know going in—that dam holding back a 300-million-gallon lake on the mountainside above the little coal camp town of Saddler Hollow—that dam’s going to blow. Grayson Addington comes home to Saddler Hollow, West Virginia, from Vietnam a broken man, ravaged by post traumatic stress syndrome, a chaplain who left his faith in the jungle mud with his massacred unit. His wife, Piper, doesn’t know her husband anymore. In his absence, she turned to his brother Carter for support. Now, she must choose between them—and Carter will stop at nothing to have her. And into this family torn apart by jealousy, deceit and clan loyalties comes a mysterious little girl. Maggie, a battered child with amnesia, shows up on the Addington's front porch and instantly bonds to Sadie, Piper and Grayson’s cripplingly shy toddler. When Maggie runs away and takes Sadie with her, the warring brothers must team up to search for them. But something more than chance has brought the child called Maggie to this wounded family. And nothing less than destiny will be fulfilled by her incredible act of love--on the foggy morning when the coal slag dam at the top of the hollow explodes. Interview with the author: Q. What’s so special about When Butterflies Cry? A. It’s real life on paper. It’s been a Kindle bestseller because the characters in the novel come to life on the page—like the family next door in a small town. The story is gripping, the action nail-biting. Q. Is this a Christian book? A. There’s no religion in it. But there is spirituality--themes of love and sacrifice that touch the soul of readers of any faith—or no faith at all. Q. Why should readers give this book a try? A. Because it’s a book that will break your heart, and then put it back together again. Goodreads and Amazon Reader Reviews Wow. I have found a new favourite author. She is so good and I’ve been burned a lot lately by really bad free books, written poorly and full of mistakes. This is the kind of contemporary women’s fiction I want but usually don’t find in a free book. A (no spoilers) sacrifice makes the book inspirational, but its filled with suspense too. Even though its during the 60's or 70s war in Vietnam, the story itself felt timeless and contemporary and so real I forgot it was fiction and it kept me in suspense way past my bedtime to find out what happened. Sarah Bridges I’m a city girl and I never thought my heart would break over a story about a small town in West Virginia. Not what I expected from a typical paranormal thriller--its a mystery with lots of suspense, like other reviewers said, it was unique. But it is during the Viet Nam war times, and not contemporary fiction like it said. You should read it, but have lots of tissues handy. It was inspirational to me how the chaplain kept hanging on and "doin’ the necessary" and then got home and found his brother with his wife—but I won’t spoil the suspense. I think the mystery about the butterflies landing on her was she was paranormal.

    He’s had 12 years to prepare for his divorce and didn’t. He had his entire life to choose a career and hasn’t. Now time’s up, and he’s in a world of trouble. But all of that changes when Tony takes a first date to a drunken party and ends with him facing prison for the murder of a girl he hardly knew. To save himself, wise-cracking Tony must discover who the mysterious girl was, what she was involved in, and what the hell she saw in him in the first place.