PI Sid Chance, former National Parks ranger and small town police chief, takes the case and finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of lies, deceptions, and threats. Who is tailing and warning him to back off? Is the man responsible for the pollution dead or alive? When ex-cop friend Jaz LeMieux offers her help, she is awakened by an explosion behind her mansion. Is it related to the abduction of her employees’ grandson, or Sid’s case? As the tension mounts, Sid finds himself confronting the unsavory people responsible for his past troubles.

    The Inside Passage could be in today’s headlines. Ted Higuera, the son of Mexican immigrants, grew up in East LA. An unlikely football scholarship was his ticket out of the barrio. Chris Hardwick was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The two become college roommates and best friends for life. As a graduation present, Chris’ father offers the boys the use of his sailboat for a summer cruise up the Inside Passage. Chris brings his girlfriend, Meagan O’Donnell along for the cruise. Ted can’t stand Meagan; he thinks she’s just interested in Chris for his money. The three have a series of adventures until they stumble upon an al-Qaeda plot to blow up a cruise ship, then the clock starts ticking. The terrorist must eliminate the witnesses before they can report the plot to the authorities. Ted, Chris and Meagan must prevent the attack on the cruise ship with Chris’ father and his new bride aboard. But what can three unarmed kids to do prevent the terrorist assault?

    Death Comes From Without. Amit is a member of the order of shadow monks, his every waking moment is spent training his body and mind to the peak of human ability - and beyond. But the order is pacifist, a repository for deadly weapons with their safeties permanently set to "on." Until everything is taken from him, and Amit decides that turning the other cheek is no longer an option. Now, every ounce of his training will be put to the test. His epic quest for revenge will see wrongs righted - or see Amit forgotten in an unmarked grave. Namaste includes Prelude, as well as the rest of the adventure. Join Amit as he chases Nisha's killer from boss to boss, all the way to the last place he ever expected. He will fight, and die if he must. What will be, will be. It's a Zen thing. ˃˃˃ Readers Love Realm & Sands. Here's What They're Saying About Namaste "Having read just about everything that these guys have written (separately and together), I absolutely loved it! Suspense, mystery, mysticism, monks, murder, love, fear, blood, revenge...just about anything you could imagine (all crammed into this one episode!). I'm still trying to wrap my brain around Amit. Do I love him? Do I hate him? Is he justified in his actions or a man gone over the edge? Knowing Sean and Johnny, no matter what I decide, they'll blow it out of the water! Can't wait to read more. Well done guys!""Screw these guys. I have things to do but I decided to load this just to check out a serial on kindle and now I'm hooked. My dogs need to be fed, I need to change the oil in my car and I'm not sure where my infant son is. But I know where I'll be for the foreseeable future: sitting on my ass reading the sequels.""Sean Platt, Johnny Truant, and David Wright are masters of their craft. They excel at taking all that is good and fun from episodic t.v. and monthly comics and crafting well written stories. Namaste is no exception. A tale of love, loss, and vengeance with their special skewed vision. Like the Punisher main character Amit is almost instantly likable and even before you learn his reasoning you know that he is justified in his pursuit. Like all of the authors books I look forward to the continuing adventures of Amit.""In Namaste, Platt and Truant deftly sketch out the background, setting, and characters of their latest serial with minimal description and brief snatches of dialog, keeping the action at a fever pitch in a high-intensity Hong Kong cinema style thriller. Punctuated by scenes of graphic violence, the experiment in non-linear storytelling is effective for this short action-oriented installment. Over the course of a longer story, the back-and-forth narrative flow might grow tedious or confusing, but here the approach lends a filmic flair to the introduction of "a pacifist monk on a rampage." Fans of Chow Yun Fat or John Woo films looking for a literary equivalent should appreciate this latest Platt & Truant effort." ˃˃˃ WARNING: Namaste is the most violent thing Realm & Sands has so far written. An Unlikely Tale of Vengeance Like Nothing You've Read!

    No matter how much time has passed, it’s always there, ready to punch you in the chest when you least expect it. All it takes is something ordinary—a brief glance, a certain food, or a melody on the radio—and regret strikes hard and fast. For Odessa Feldman, the trigger is a Pacific Northwest storm. When the muddy bones of a murder victim buried over fifty years ago are discovered in the storm’s aftermath, Odessa overcomes her long struggle with guilt to finally reveal the truth. But her overdue confession comes with a difficult price—reliving her role in the tragic summer of 1956 and worse, betraying the best friend she’d ever had. Dessa and Ellie Matthews were both fourteen-years-old when they met that summer. Ellie’s father was a foreman at the dam under construction on the Columbia River. At least that’s what he said. But, like murder and the motives behind it, some things in life are rarely as they seem.

    But when eight-year-old Tanisha Walker offers him a jar full of change to find her missing brother, he doesn’t have the heart to turn her away.Justin had hoped to find the boy alive and well. But all that was found of Devon Walker was his brutally murdered body—and the bodies of twelve other African American teenagers, all discarded like trash in a mass grave. Each had been reported missing. And none had been investigated.As simmering racial tensions explode into violence, Justin finds himself caught in the tide. And as he gives voice to the discontent plaguing the city’s forgotten and ignored, he vows to search for the killer who preys upon them.

    A disgraced ex-cop turned private investigator is hired by the dead woman’s father and immediately becomes the target of a violent ex-convict. An enigmatic music star performs damage control on her links to the dead woman. And a professional killer who idolizes Keith Richards is brought into town by a mysterious employer. Dead Wood is what great mysteries are all about: love, hate, faith and vengeance, all wrapped up in an explosive story that simply refuses to let up.

    You will never escape me.” She’s the most dangerous inmate in the hospital for the criminally insane...and she just broke out. When Trey Campbell takes his family to Catalina Island, his escaped patient leaves a trail of bodies behind as she hunts for her one true love – from a previous life.

    In True Conviction, he takes a job in the sun-soaked city of Heaven's Valley, a paradise of sin and the jewel of Nevada. His contract? Kill a man who has stolen something of value from the local mafia. But when the job turns sour, he discovers a much larger threat looming in the shadows. He finds himself in the crosshairs of a powerful adversary, and he must use his skills to survive while working to stop a terrorist attack that could act as a catalyst for another world war. Adrian is pushed beyond his limits, tested to breaking point and forced to overcome tremendous odds in order to do what's right in this adrenaline-fuelled action adventure... even if it means going against his killer instincts. (Previously published under the title, Crucible)

    Her husband, a prestigious psychiatrist, has been in an accident. And he isn’t alone.Suddenly Evelyn’s world isn’t as tidy as she thought. And in the midst of it all is Juliette, not only her husband’s secret lover but also his patient. If news of the affair were to get out, it would ruin more than just Evelyn’s marriage. Although it’s a bitter pill for Evelyn to swallow, protecting her family means staying silent—even if, as she begins to discover, the night of the accident has consequences far more dangerous than the unmasking of an affair.But the more Evelyn learns about Juliette’s picture-perfect life—complete with a handsome, unsuspecting husband—the more she yearns for revenge…and satisfaction. Her growing obsession fuels her rage, burning away her complacency. What will be left of her after it flames out?

    Actually, he has two. Or maybe three. The first is that he'll be dead from cancer, less than a year, which doesn't particularly concern him: "Things I've been through, dying is just one more page in a long bad book." But spending his last living days, taking his last living breath, behind steel bars does. That's the second problem: Inmate #78903 in the notorious level-four Washington State prison known as Horseneck Bay.Then there's the money. Two million dollars of stolen military payroll, supposedly buried in some remote and mysterious south-Texas mountain range called Los Despoblados, or The Uninhabited, which sounds to Oreny like one of those places his Mama Maybell always told him to avoid. But he'll worry about that later. He has to get there first. Problem number three.That's when he brings those two smoldering dynamite sticks he's attached himself to--his Luke-boy and Jaime--on board to help his tired old body break out of Horseneck and go dig up that money and then hightail it across the border into Mexico. And when they do break out, and Luke decides to bring his girlfriend Lauren along, and her enraged ex comes after them, and then the manhunt starts multiplying faster around them than those cancer cells inside him, Oreny still thinks he can control them. The problems, that is. At least, until Cade arrives.Cade, the prison investigator Oreny knows is dangerous and unpredictable as a six-foot-two wolverine on eight gallons of adrenalin gone bad. And who won't stop until he catches them and does to them what Cade does best.Cade, Oreny knows better than anything else, is their biggest problem of all.

    Lead detective Jeremy Ryder is a physically powerful, quiet and meticulous investigator. His partner Navi Pillay is a small and exceptionally strong Tamil martial arts instructor, and she provides the speed and physical power to complement Ryder's incisive sleuthing abilities. Together with their other detective colleagues Ryder and Pillay crack open two interwoven criminal operations. There are two key villains. One is a corrupt murderous senior police officer at the heart of the illegal gambling operation and the other is a sinister and violent gangster dealing in drugs and murder. Each of them presides over lesser criminals and each of them controls separate domains of corruption until their paths cross in a spectacular climax.

     Frau Fenderman approaches a warder at the Tower of London, asking questions about her husband – a Nazi spy who’d been imprisoned and executed there thirty years ago. But there’s no record of anyone called Claus Fenderman having ever been executed on British soil. Tasked with investigating the mystery, British Intelligence Officer Herbie Kruger digs into the strange operations of the Psychological Warfare Executive. Beginning to put the pieces together, he discovers that the group was trying to push false occult predictions into the Nazi mind using the famous Nostradamus prophecies. But something had gone very, very wrong. The deeper he delves into the investigation, the bigger and more dangerous the web becomes, for more than one of the participants in the Nostradamus Operation has something lethal to hide… Praise for John Gardner: ‘A master storyteller at the height of his power’ - Len Deighton, acclaimed author of Funeral in Berlin 'Cool polished story-telling with all the sexy sidelines in the best James Bond tradition' - The Evening Standard John Gardner was educated in Berkshire and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He has had many fascinating occupations and was at one time a Royal Marine officer, a stage magician, theatre critic, reviewer and journalist.

    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.

    Now one of those schemes has come true, and Ian is the only person alive who knows how it was done...and who is behind the plot. That makes him too dangerous to live.Ian goes on the run, sweeping up an innocent bystander in his plight--Margo French, a dog walker and aspiring singer. They are pursued by assassins and an all-seeing global-intelligence network that won't stop until Ian and Margo are dead. Ian has written thrillers like this before, but this time he doesn't know how it's going to end--or if he will be alive to find out.

    A fascinating study in dark and evil... The stuff of Great British grit and dark, dark humour … Barlow provides plenty of twists and turns before the truth is revealed. But what is most enjoyable about Barlow's writing isn't his story archs or plotting, but his characters, dialogue and sense of place... Beautifully cinematic… far more cinematic than a McDermid or a Rankin. Crimefictionlover.comBarlow throws in plenty of twists before everything is untangled, since of course nothing in the case is exactly what it seems to be, and he spins the yarn in fast-paced, very readable prose. He also does a good job with the setting, the English city of Leeds, and made me feel like I'd been there. HOPE ROAD is a fine novel, the first in a series, and I look forward to reading the others.Rough EdgesHOPE ROAD: a crime thriller - You can't change your past. But what about your future?John Ray, son of crime boss Antonio 'Tony' Ray, is the straight one of the family. With a successful business and a lifestyle to match, he wants nothing to do with his father's criminal world. But what does that world want with him?A young prostitute is found dead in John's car, and Freddy Metcalfe, his best friend and employee, is framed for her death. Freddy denies everything but it's an open and shut case: he's going down for murder. John sets out to find the real killer.But things get complicated. A stash of counterfeit money was also found in John's car, and the police seem more interested in that than in the dead girl. Then Lanny Bride turns up; one of the north's most ruthless criminals (and an old friend of the Ray family), Lanny is desperate to know who killed the girl. But why? Meanwhile, Freddy is too scared to talk to anyone, even his lawyer.John's police detective girlfriend, Denise Danson, has been warned off the case by her boss. But she doesn't believe Freddy is guilty, and secretly helps John look for the murderer. The problem, though, is that uncovering the shocking truth about the girl's death will force John to confront his own criminal past and risk destroying his future, as well as losing the only woman he's ever loved. A novel set in Leeds, this is the first crime-mystery in the LS9 series.