Glenn Cheney arrived in Kiev during those first days when the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Ukraine was reborn. Almost immediately he found himself talking with scientist, journalist, refugees, engineers, top-level government officials, doctors, environmentalists, parents of sick children and people living just a few kilometers from the Chernobyl complex. He heard stories about the disaster that went far beyond what had appeared in the Western press. The reports of atrocities, epidemics...

Thanksgiving is not a book about a holiday. It s about something that a few dozen survivors did after a year of suffering, death, struggle, and courage.They bowed their heads to give thanks.The Pilgrims journey began as a joint venture of business and religion, but soon it became a matter of survival.With 102 men, women, and children packed into a dim, wet space below the main deck, the Mayflower set out on a terrifying 66-day crossing of the Atlantic. They ...

For almost a hundred years, a nation of fugitive Africans, Indians, whites, and mixed races fought off the world’s most powerful empires in a struggle to survive in freedom.Over the span of the 17th century, the Quilombo dos Palmares melded several cultures to form its own language, religion, government, values, and way of life. Its population may have exceeded 20,000. Its last king is believed to have been an educated descendant of slaves. He took the name Zumbi—Lord of War—and bu...

The murderer has a perfectly logical reason for his kills. Logical, but insane. Wounded soul and single dad Nick Clayborne uses a radio scanner to listen in on private conversations. It’s virtually his only adult contact. He fills notebooks with what he hears in hopes of an eventual book deal. Then three of those strangers are murdered. Panicking, he reaches out to a long-time favorite he's been listening in on for years. Their connection begins to thaw his frozen heart. But when the polic...

Brazil's Estrada Real — the Royal Road — was constructed in 1697 to bring the gold and diamonds from the mountains of Minas Gerais to ports at Rio de Janeiro and Paraty. The road is still there, winding through the mountains, passing through villages and towns once opulent, now in decadence. Glenn Alan Cheney hiked up the road for two months to write about its history, geography, culture, and people.Life along the Estrada Real is still very much in the 19th century. Women cook meal...

Nuclear Armageddon is on the BallotThe leading candidate for US President is certain God has chosen him to bring on The Rapture by launching nuclear war. His march to the White House is unstoppable. Journalist Dan Jessup finally unearths the candidate’s virulent past, but if he reveals it, his pregnant wife and son, now being held hostage, will be murdered. Meanwhile, Lt. Greg Pangborn, a tech officer in a rogue military faction, is beta-testing how the US might...

Does government surveillance make us safer? The thirteenth Munk Debate, held in Toronto on Friday, May 2, 2014, pitted Michael Hayden and Alan Dershowitz against Glenn Greenwald and Alexis Ohanian to debate whether state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedom — the democratic issue of the moment.In a risk-filled world, democracies are increasingly turning to large-scale state surveillance, at home and abroad, to fight complex and unconventional threats — but is it just...

Excerpts from books by Glenn Alan Cheney. Excerpts are from:-- Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims' First Year in America-- Journey on the Estrada Real: Encounters in the Mountains of Brazil-- Frankenstein on the Cusp of Something-- Passion in an Improper Place-- Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil's lost nation of fugitive slaves-- Ex Cathedra: Stories by Machado de Assis

Insurance investigator Charlie Novak doesn't probe murders. He commits them. His victims? The insured wives of his partner. It’s all part of their ongoing black widower scheme, with Charlie staging fatal accidents nobody looks at twice. But this latest victim was no accident. Someone else murdered her, and now homicide cops are crawling all over it. In this psychological noir peek into the mind of a killer, we follow as Charlie monitors the case for the insurance company, hoping to steer i...

Ysa should have known better.She shouldn't have believed Kit. Shouldn't have gone up the Amazon with the Gumball King. Should haven't let a Mundurucu take up her up a river in a canoe. Shouldn't have ventured alone into mining camp.Kit should have known better. He shouldn't have taken women into Amazonia. Shouldn't have taken a hippie-chick and 20,000 porpoises up in an airplane. Shouldn't have played bridge with an underground lumberjack. Definitely shouldn't have trusted ...

Sister Diane DalleMolle and Sister Barbara Staley arrived in Swaziland at the height of an HIV epidemic that today afflicts a third of the population. Under under extremely difficult conditions in the harsh, semi-arid outback, they managed to establish a clinic, care for over 100 orphans, install a municipal-scale water system, and in so many ways achieve the impossible. This is the story of their work, the people they work with, and a country that is on the brink of extinction.