NEW EDITION -- Materially Revised Sept. 2014When the pregnant wife and four-year-old stepdaughter of fading movie star Tom Travis disappeared a massive search was launched. Soon after the body of Travis' wife is discovered only a few miles from where he had been riding his dune buggy on the day she vanished he's arrested and placed on trial for capital murder.Only a few days away from an almost certain guilty verdict Travis' lawyer hires suspended Ex-Deputy D.A. Steve Janso...

Gaius Julius Caesar was intelligent, courageous, and connected. For the majority of his adult life, though, he took little advantage of his gifts. Then, in his early forties, he came into his own as an orator, politician, general, writer, and statesman. Caesar dedicated himself to a singular mission: building Rome into an empire over which he would rule. As he realized his grand vision, the world he had created crashed down on him. Friends and foes alike turned against him. A group of cons...

Long forgotten by mankind the world "Fane" lies on the outer reaches of explored space. The planet's peculiar electromagnetic fields slowly destroy electronic devices but in compensation they enhance psychic abilities. Over the centuries humans and the aliens with whom they share the planet have evolved into clans of wizards and masters, dullards and incompetents.Grantin, the nephew of a powerful but harsh magician, seems bound for failure in the magical arts. In a last ditch effor...

Nothing in history sounds grander than a trade route, one of those thick bold lines on the statistical maps by which people have exchanged the products of their hands, minds, and sporadically, even hearts. Some of the routes have shaped history, rather than merely reflecting it. Primary among them is the Silk Road, the overland route across Asia that endured for more than 1,000 years as a crossroad from East to West. Here, in this essay by historian David Grace is the story of one of the g...

When eight immigrants arrived at the Baltimore Federal Courthouse to be sworn in as citizens they didn't give a thought to the trial next door of five terrorists charged with blowing up a federal building. Baltimore Sun Reporter Mark Shrader did care about that trial. His wife and unborn child had been killed in that explosion, but in spite of his pleas to cover the case he was instead ordered to write a Sunday Supplement article on the new citizens.Then the terrorists escaped thei...

Raphael LaFontaine's parents were hoodoo practitioners who sold potions, infusions, vapors, and spells. While she was pregnant with him Rafael's mother ingested the herbs and roots that were her and her husband's stock and trade.From early childhood Raphael was afflicted with strange visions and fever dreams and found that he was often able to see into other people's emotions and personalities. Both a curse and a gift, these talents have served Rafe well, first as a Baltimore polic...

When Peter Howard stumbled across a kidnapped child in the middle of nowhere he only intended to follow them and then call the police, but the man confronted him and pulled a gun. The next thing Peter knew Lisa was in his car, her captor was lying on the ground bleeding, and Peter was driving off madly into the night.Peter soon discovered that Lisa's captor was the brother of the local police chief and that Peter himself was now a wanted man. If the locals caught them they would gi...

Secretary of State Randall Tanner was shocked to discover that the President was a traitor.After three agonizing days he decided that the only possible course of action was that President had to die. Tanner initiated a plot to have President assassinated in a way that would make his death look like an accident. Because Hoskins' mistress, Sarah, knew too much she had to die as well.Five years later Sarah's alcoholic husband finds her diary which eventually falls into the han...

Young J.T. Trainer was about to be killed for the life insurance money that would pay off his father's gambling debts. J.T.'s only friend, sixteen-year-old Hannah McGuire, discovered the plan and managed to get J.T. on a bus out of town before luring the killers in the other direction. J.T.'s last, fleeting glimpse of Hannah was of her racing off into the night with the gambler's enforcers hot on her trail.Now, twenty years later, San Diego Homicide Detective J.T. Trainer is still ...

After twenty-fives years on the job, NYPD Lieutenant Greg Webster retired to a small Kansas college to teach classes in Criminal Justice. Webster looked forward to the move as a well-deserved rest for himself and his social-worker wife, Carolyn. Unfortunately, before even a year had passed Carolyn was dead, killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident. Though dazed and heartbroken, Greg suspected nothing sinister about her death until, as a class project, one of Webster's students began rese...

"Set in the modern day, this straightforward, fast-paced detective novel cages a truly twisted villain.""The reader is thrust into a page-turning, clever narrative that continually morphs from police procedural, thriller, courtroom drama, and gritty evaluation of a serial rapist and killer.""...the relentless pace allows for little introspection.""Grace relishes the accurate and disturbing details, providing top-quality entertainment....""...a relentless sto...

When eight immigrants arrived at the Baltimore Federal Courthouse to be sworn in as new citizens they didn’t give a thought to the trial next door of five terrorists charged with blowing up a federal building. Baltimore Sun Reporter Mark Shrader did care about that trial. His wife and unborn child had been killed in that explosion, but in spite of his pleas to cover the case he was instead ordered to write a Sunday-Supplement article on the new citizens. Then the terrorists escaped their g...