2011, ISBN: 9780752825236

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This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by hi… Meer...

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son., Health Communications Inc; Reissue edition (September 1, 1995), 0, little brown and co, 1956. third printing. Hard cover. Good. No dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. hardcover condition good-signed by previous owner. hardcover condition good-signed by previous owner In the summer of 1864, hopes for a Union victory seem dim. Though slowly strangling from blockade and the ruin of its railroad system, the Confederacy fights on like a wounded tiger, and if Lincoln loses the forthcoming election, whoever wins will almost certainly conclude a peace settlement that will leave the country in two pieces for the forseeable future. What s worse, there are many underground groups in the North those who hate Lincoln, who claim he s violated the Constitution, that he s made himself dictator and [will] never let go of his powers with exactly that goal. Copperhead s too general a term, observes one character, but there are a lot of organizations that trend pretty well the same way. Knights of the Golden Circle, Order of American Knights, Sons of this and Brothers of that. By themselves, I guess they re fairly harmless, but lumped together and manipulated by really smart men, they could be sheer gunpowder. Into this situation comes Ellery Starr, graduate of Phillips Andover and Amherst and the youngest Major of Artillery in the whole Army of the Potomac; wounded once at Antietam, he was rushed back to his unit, but a second and much less grave mishap at Gettysburg kept him the hospital for months with a recurring infection, and now he s been invalided out of the service. Troubled over the political situation, he decides that if he can somehow make the Union effort real to its people, he may be able to help get Lincoln re-elected, so he becomes a correspondent for the New York Tribune. He s present at Chambersburg, Maryland, when Jubal Early s forces burn it, but refuses to write of atrocities that never happened, which gains him the respect of Southern officers. Next he finds himself attached to Barnum s Museum, a rather unconventional artillery battery in Sheridan s forces in the Shenandoah Valley, and in that capacity begins to notice the frequent presence of a wandering preacher named Joseph Westlake and his poke-bonneted daughter Gillian, who seem to be sowing discord and doubt among the Union forces. Gradually it begins to come clear to him that the Westlakes are probably supported by some treasonable group and acting as its agents. Then a Southern friend catches up with him and reveals that the situation is worse than he had thought: the Westlakes are stirring up Southerners as well as Unionists, smuggling arms to the former and sowing defeatism among the latter, seeing to it that burnings and lootings take place where they ll have the most telling effect on morale. Ellery is instrumental in clearing a jam (probably engineered by Westlake) that threatens to make it impossible for Sheridan to get over the Opequon River, and plays a part in the engagement at Cedar Creek but the Westlakes keep slipping through everyone s fingers until he realizes that they re tied in with groups that trace their existence back to the previous decade. Bruce Lancaster s historical novels concentrated chiefly on the Revolution, but in this one he showed that he could portray the Civil War with equal skill. His battle scenes may not be as vivid as Mary Johnston s, but he shows convincingly the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of people determined to either bring Lincoln down or prolong the fighting for their own profit., little brown and co, 1956, 2.5, New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2006. First edition. . Hard cover. Very good in very good dust jacket. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Author). HARDCOVER IN DUST JACKET COPYRIGHT, 2007-FIRST EDITION-. PUBLISHED BY CROWN PUBLISHERS-375 PAGES. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Author). HARDCOVER IN DUST JACKET COPYRIGHT, 2007-FIRST EDITION-. PUBLISHED BY CROWN PUBLISHERS-375 PAGES The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Author). HARDCOVER IN DUST JACKET COPYRIGHT, 2007-FIRST EDITION-. PUBLISHED BY CROWN PUBLISHERS-375 PAGES In our lowdown, dispiriting era, Obama s talent for proposing humane, sensible solutions with uplifting, elegant prose does fill one with hope. Michael Kazin, The Washington Post In July 2004, four years before his presidency, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called the audacity of hope. The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama s call for a different brand of politics a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the endless clash of armies we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of our improbable experiment in democracy. He explores those forces from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment. At the heart of this book is Barack Obama s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats from terrorism to pandemic that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, Obama says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them., Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2006, 3, Alexandria, VA: Crest Books. Near Fine. 1998. Softcover. 0965760146 . Text is clean. Cover shows virtually no wear. Could pass for new. ; From Back Cover: In A Little Greatness, Joe Noland searches the book of Acts for the secrets of true nobility. He ferrets out gems of truth and uncovers paradoxes in the life of the believer. We can know "Common Wonders, " practice "Defiant Obedience, " be "Lowered to New Heights, " and assert "Gentle Boldness. " Using word play and alliteration, Noland draws the reader into the story of the early Church and reveals the contemporary relevance of all that took place then. Divided into three parts, the book explores aspects of heavenly greatness available through the help of the Holy Spirit: Great Power, Great Grace, and Great Joy. A Bible study and discussion guide for each chapter helps the reader to fully apply the lessons of scripture, making the book an ideal resource for group and individual study. ; ; 223 pages ., Crest Books, 1998, 4, London: New English Library (NEL) 01675, 1974. Book. Very Good. Paperback. 1st NEL edition.. 16mo - over 5¾ - 6¾" tall. Military History No. 3. "A story of bravery, stupidity and treachery played out under the blazing sun of the Punjab." 174 pages + two pages of advertisements for other NEL titles, illustrated w/in-text maps. Tanning, light general wear. Internally tight and clean.., New English Library (NEL) 01675, 1974, 3, N.Y., Grosset & Dunlap, NY [1943]. Hard Cover. vii, 241 p. Copyright by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. ''Air Force was born of a meeting between Jack L. Warner, and General H.H. Arnold, chief of th United States Army Air force. Out of this meeting grew the story of a Boeing B-17 Flying fortress, the Mary Ann, and her heroic crew.' Stock #26974. Red cloth boards; pages darkened, several corners broken off, else good. Cinema, film, movies, fiction, military history., N.Y., Grosset & Dunlap, NY [1943], 0, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1952. Hardcover, dark green cloth boards. Very Good/No Jacket. Adapted from the novel by Vern Sneider. Three act play set at U.S. Army headquarters in Okinawa. Opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York in October 1953. B/w photos from the stageplay by Eileen Darby. 180 pages, corners lightly bumped, endpapers browning, small previous owner's stamp on fep., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1952, 3, Collins. Very Good/Very Good. 2011. Hard Cover. 8vo 000737478X Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. Colour photographs. 304 pages clean and tight. 'Afghanistan is just like Iraq hot, dusty and full of people who want to kill you', SSgt Simon Fuller, Royal Engineer Search Advisor. Bomb Hunters tells the story of the British army's elite bomb disposal experts, men who face death every day in the most dangerous region on earth – Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Bomb Hunters are up against the Improvised Explosive Device – the IED – the deadly homemade bombs planted by the Taliban. Hard to detect and easy to trigger, an estimated 10 bombs for every one of the 10,000 British troops have been planted in the region. IEDs are now the main killer of British troops in Afghanistan and the ultimate psychological weapon. Bomb Hunters work in 50-degree heat as they take the 'long walk' into the kill zone, defusing as many as 15 bombs a day. In the past year the casualty rate has soared as the troops have become locked into a deadly game of cat and mouse – to locate and deactivate the deadly bombs before they maim and kill soldiers, police and civilians. Skill, cold courage and inevitably pure luck play a huge part in the survival of these men and as the British public have already seen – a single lapse of concentration can result in instant death. Ex-paratrooper, now defence journalist, Sean Rayment, takes the reader on a journey into the heat and dust of Helmand Province as he meets these courageous soldiers while they put their lives at risk to prevent other British troops falling victim to the IED. He interviews the Bomb Hunters as they perform their duties on the frontline and paints a breathtaking picture of what life is like for the men who play poker with their own lives every day, who live knowing the enemy watches their every move, waiting for a weakness to show itself, a pattern in technique to be exploited, or an error to be made that triggers the device itself. This is as vivid and dramatic as war reporting gets, mixing 'close to the bone' narrative and dead-pan black humour from the Bomb Hunters themselves, some of whom were subsequently killed in action. ., Collins, 2011, 3, London: Trojan Press. Very Good-. 1974. Paperback. Mass Market PB . Large sticker ghost on front cover, some edge wear and scuffing, old dealer stamp and price on front endpaper, slight foxing. ; Nice tight flat copy. Undated but assumed mid 1970s. ; In the eyes of his comrades he was a traitor, in the eyes of the Resistance a hero. Sergeant Hans Kramer fought with the German Army for two years before deserting to join the French resistance. Was he playing a double game? ., Trojan Press, 1974, 3, Random House, USA, 1978. Hardcover (Printed Boards). Good (ex-library)/No Dust Jacket. Hardcover (Printed Boards). *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Random House, USA, 1978. *** CONDITION: This book is in good (ex-library) condition. More specifically: Ex-library with usual marks, stamps, stickers. Edges of boards have superficial edgewear and corners are heavily bumped. Pages are lightly creased. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: Illus. in full color. Three brave little bears explore the inside of a mysterious old tree and go into, up, through, over, down, and out. Stan and Jan Berenstain were both born in 1923 in Philadelphia. They didn't know each other as children, but met later at school, at the Philadelphia College of Art. They liked each other right away, and found out that the both enjoyed the same kinds of books, plays, music and art. During World War II, Stan was a medical assistant in the Army, and Jan worked in an airplane factory. When the war was over, they got married and began to work together as artists and writers, primarily drawing cartoons for popular magazines. After having their two sons Leo and Michael, the Berenstains decided to write some funny children's books that their children and other children could read and enjoy. Their first published children's book was called The Big Honey Hunt. It was about a family of bears, who later became known as the "Berenstain Bears." *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Children & Young Adult; Children's Picture Books; ISBN: 0394839102. ISBN/EAN: 9780394839103. Inventory No: 23070215.. 9780394839103, Random House, 1978, 2.5, John Murray. Very Good. 5.12 x 0.83 x 7.76 inches. Paperback. 2007. 320 pages. <br>Completely brilliant' Ian Hislop It seemed a simp le enough idea at the outset: to assemble a team of eleven men to play cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe. Exce pt - hold on a minute - that's not a simple idea at all . And whe n you throw in incompetent airline officials, amorous Argentine C olonels' wives, cunning Bajan drug dealers, gay Australian waiter s, overzealous American anti-terrorist police, idiot Welshmen dre ssed as Santa Claus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and whole armies of pitch-invading Antarctic penguins, you quickly arrive at a whole lot more than you bargained for. Harry Thompson's hilarious book tells the story of one of those great idiotic enterprises that o nly an Englishman could have dreamed up, and only a bunch of Engl ishmen could possibly have wished to carry out. ., John Murray, 2007, 3, Piccadilly Press. Very Good. 198mm / 129mm. Paperback. 2009. 281 pages. <br>'Run!' Mad Dog shouts! 'Run, Hattie - RUN!' I turn and see the impossible - shadowy figures are filling the room! T he graffiti on the walls is not graffiti at all - its real people and they're peeling off the walls! Hattie Jackson is just an ord inary fifteen-year-old - until her mother disappears and Hattie's life is turned upside down. With the help of her friend Mad Dog, Hattie discovers the truth about her mother's 'other life' and t he role she must now take on to defeat a terrifying army of evil Ninjutsu warriors, led by Praying Mantis - the most deadly assass in known to man... A thrilling page turner by an exciting new aut hor. AUTHOR: Jane Prowse is a writer and director who has worked mostly in theatre and television. She lives in North London with her husband and their two cats, Mitten and blind Buffy. Jane has directed all kinds of dramas - both adult and children's, and has written for Lynda La Plante on Trial and Retribution and The Com mander, which she also directed. Jane loves traveling and wildlif e - especially when the two coincide. She does yoga, plays tennis , adores swimming and sometimes goes to the gym. She studied Dram a at university and was taught by Anthony Minghella - whose passi on for storytelling inspired her. Hattori Hachi - The Revenge of Praying Mantis is her first book. ., Piccadilly Press, 2009, 3, Bantam Press. Good. 6 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches. Paperback. 2007. 400 pages. <br>The breathtaking new thriller from the author of B ravo Two Zero. Body guarding a TV crew on the streets of war-to rn Basra, ex-deniable operator Nick Stone's life is saved by a re porter's swift action as a roadside bomb explodes. When the man l ater vanishes, Stone is asked to find him. The trail leads from I raq to Bermuda, London and Kabul, the dark and brutal city where governments, terrorism and big business inexorably collide. Caugh t in the crossfire, his nightmare is only just beginning, for the hunter has suddenly become the hunted. . . Editorial Reviews R eview A heart-thumping read. -Daily Express McNab's great asset is that the heart of his fiction is non-fiction: other thriller writers do their research, but he has actually been there. -Sunda y Times About the Author Andy McNab was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestselle rs, Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action. He is the author of the bestselling novels, Remote Control, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last L ight, Liberation Day and Dark Winter. Excerpt. Reprinted by per mission. All rights reserved. 1 Tuesday, 27 February 2007 0015 h rs North-west of Basra The noise and heat, gloom and sheer fucki ng claustrophobia in the back of the Warrior were oppressive enou gh, but now the armour was suddenly clanging three times a second like the world's strongest madman was using it for sledgehammer practice. We were taking rounds. It could only mean we were closi ng in on target. The engine roared and the tracks screeched over the rock. The front end dipped hard. 'Fuck!' the Scouse driver screamed over the radio net, as he stood on the anchors. 'There' s a fuck'n' bastard tank!' The commander yelled back so loud I h ad to lift the PRR pad from my ear. 'Go right, you cunt - you'll hit the fucker!' Until a few years ago, the only way troops could communicate with each other was by shouting or hand signals, but every man and his dog now wore a personal role radio. It had rev olutionized the infantry. Just four inches by six, with a headset consisting of an ear pad, Velcro strap and little boom mike, PRR acted effectively as a secure chat net between troops. The Chal lenger's thundering growl had come from our left. The tracks sque aled and we gripped whatever we could get hold of to stop ourselv es being flung from our seats. We took more small-arms fire into the hull, and then there was a much louder bang two feet away fro m my shoulder. 'RPG!' Rocket-propelled grenades could punch hol es in concrete walls. I knew it would just bounce off the skirt o f bar armour surrounding us, but I still felt like I was trapped in a locked safe while people on the outside were fucking about w ith blowtorches and gelignite. It wasn't simply that I couldn't see what was happening. It was having no control that bothered me . I was at the mercy of the driver, the gunner, and the commander in the turret. He was a platoon sergeant called Rhett or Red - I didn't catch it when we met, and then we got past the point wher e I could ask again. Our Warrior was part of the battle group's recce platoon. Dom, Pete and I were embedded. 'Entombed, more lik e,' Pete said. He'd been a tankie himself once upon a time, and e ven he didn't like the lid coming down. We were jammed shoulder t o shoulder in the eerie red glow of the night-lights. Rhett's scu ffed and dusty desert boots were level with my face. The gunner w as up there on his left, frantically feeding rounds into the 30mm cannon. The wagon took one final hard right and came to a jarri ng, gut-wrenching halt. The stern reared up under the momentum, t hen crashed down like a breaking wave. 'Dismount! Dismount!' Rh ett's shout was drowned by the cannon kicking off above us. Dom got a punch from one of the Kingsmen and hit the button above his head. The rear-door hydraulics whined. I could see stars, hear t he roar of gunfire and heavy machinery. The four recce guys tumb led out into the inky blackness. Pete shoved a hand over his lens and we followed. My Timberlands slid and twisted on the rubble as I ducked down against the bar armour, gulping fresh but dust-l aden air. Oil wells blazed out of control on the horizon. Gases a nd crude were being forced out of the ground under phenomenal pre ssure, shooting flames a hundred feet into the air. The night wa s filled with the thunder of 30mm cannon kicking off across the d ried-up wadi bed that separated us from our target - the building s no more than a hundred away. It had prevented the drivers going right up to the front doors. I was hungry for more air. My nost rils filled with sand, but I didn't care. I had my feet on the gr ound and I was in control of them. And, thanks to the mortar plat oon, I could see what was happening. Their 81mm tubes had filled the sky with illume. Balls of blazing magnesium hung in the air a bove the town before beginning their descent, casting shadows lef t and right as they swung under their parachutes, silhouetting th e two massive Challengers rumbling left and right of us. Bright muzzle flashes from four or five AKs sparked up from the line of houses that edged the built-up area. Our gunner switched from th e 30mm Rarden cannon to the 7.62mm Hughes Helicopter Chain Gun to dish out a different edition of the same good news. Two Warrior s lurched to a halt alongside us, throwing up a plume of dust. My nose was totally clogged now. Guys spilled out of the back doors with bayonets fixed. Pete adjusted the oversized Batman utility belt round his waist where he stuffed his lenses and shit, and r aised his infrared camera to his face. He was like a kid in a swe etshop as the mass of armour surrounding the town spewed infantry into the sand. Dom got ready to do his Jeremy Bowen bit to came ra. He rehearsed a few soundbites to himself as Pete sorted the s ound check. 'The Kingsmen of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment ar e halfway through their six-month tour. They have been shot at tw enty-four/seven by small arms, RPGs and mortars, but ask any one of them and they'll tell you it's what they signed up to do.' To night they were about to kick the shit out of the insurgents who were within spitting distance of taking over Al Gurnan and starti ng to claim the ground as their own. They had to be broken. An in surgent stronghold soon became another link in the supply chain f rom Iran, just ten clicks away. The Kingsmen's mission was to do the breaking, and ours was to report it. Dom talked, Pete filmed him, and I had to make sure the two didn't get shot, snatched, o r run over by a set of tracks sent screaming across the desert by a bunch of jabbering Scousers. It wasn't easy. When Dom started playing newsman, he seemed to think there was a magic six-foot f orcefield standing between him and any incoming fire. Sometimes h e thought he didn't even need to wear a helmet. But in this war t he enemy didn't give a shit whether you were a journalist or a so ldier. If you were a foreigner they wanted you out, preferably in a body-bag. If they could get you alive, so much the better: you 'd be the new star of The Al Jazeera Show, and all you could do w as hope your next appearance wouldn't end with them slicing off y our head online. The chain gun ceased fire. The Kingsmen swarmed down into the wadi. Dom made to follow, but I grabbed him and p ulled him on to his knees. Another flurry of illume kicked off ov er the town and the cannon opened up again. I had to scream into his ear: 'They said not to go forward until they call us! Wait. L et them get on with it.' The Kingsmen vanished for a few seconds in the dead ground of the riverbed, before reappearing on the fa r bank, screaming and shouting all sorts of Scouse shit they prob ably didn't even understand themselves. They kicked their way th rough a series of old wooden doors and into whatever chaos lay th e other side. ., Bantam Press, 2007, 2.5, St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.13 inches. Paperback. 2000. 384 pages. <br>The hero of six New York Times bestsellers by Step hen Coonts, author ofFlight of the Intruder and Fortunes of War, returns as the United States and Cuba engage in a terrifying game of brinksmanship, a gamble that could break the last military ta boo and destroy both countries. In Cuba, an ailing Fidel Castro lies dying. Across the Straits of Florida, an anxious US awaits t he inevitable power struggle, determined to have a say in who con trols this strategically invaluable island. And the American Pres ident has an added reason for concern: an Arms Control Conference has just begun in Paris and, unbeknownst to either the American public or Cuba, the US has hidden secret weapons inside the Ameri can base on Cuba's Guantanemo Bay. But no secret remains one for long, and when one of the Cuban factions finds out about the weap ons, the excitement begins. Only Admiral Grafton, on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba, knows the impending danger. Only Grafton can save America from a disaster that would make the Bay of Pigs look like child's play. In Cuba, Stephen Coonts captures the ominous feel of a tropical powderkeg about to explode in a no vel filled with the action and drama for which he is famous. Edi torial Reviews Review Dramatic, diverting action...Coonts deliv ers. ?Booklist [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. ?Publisher s Weekly (starred review) Coonts manages to put together the var ious subplots into a satisfying climax that includes enough Tomah awk missiles, stealth bombers and staccato action to satisfy his most demanding fans. ?USA Today --This text refers to an out of p rint or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Ste phen Coonts is the author of The Disciple, The Assassin, and the Deep Black and Saucers series, among many other bestsellers. His first novel, the classic flying tale Flight of the Intruder, spen t more than six months at the top of The New York Times bestselle r list. A motion picture based on the book was released in 1991. His novels have been published around the world and translated in to more than a dozen languages. In 1986, he was honored by the U. S. Naval Institute with its Author of the Year Award. He is also the editor of four anthologies, Combat, On Glorious Wings, Victor y and War in the Air. Coonts served in the Navy from 1969 to 1977 , including two combat cruises on the USS Enterprise during the l ast years of the Vietnam War. --This text refers to an out of pri nt or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The future of Cuba is up for grabs in this crackerjack speculativ e thriller by the author of Flight of the Intruder and Fortunes o f War. Coonts regulars Rear Admiral Jake Grafton and staff operat ions officer Toad Tarkington are providing military cover for a s hipment of American chemical and biological weaponsAweapons that should have been destroyed long agoAout of Guant namo Bay, where they have been in storage. When the shipment goes missing, it's G rafton's job to find it and get those weapons back. But that's th e least of his worries, because Cuba is developing its own biolog ical weapons; as soon as they are ready, they will be loaded onto missiles already aimed at American cities. Meanwhile, an aged Ca stro is dying of cancer, and even if he lives long enough to name a successor, Alejo Vargas, head of the Cuban secret police, has his own plans for the future of the country. While there's little doubt that Grafton will save the day, Coonts's sharply drawn cha ractersAincluding dapper CIA operative and biological weapons exp ert William Henry Chance and his safe-cracking sidekick, Tommy Ca rmelliniAand a plethora of intersecting plot lines take what one character calls another Cuban missile crisis to a rousing action finale. But the surprise pleasure here is how clearly Coonts pain ts a picture of Cuba by focusing on the three Soldano brothersAHe ctor, a Jesuit priest who may be Castro's chosen successor; Ocho, the handsome ballplayer who has the chance to sail to Florida wi th the woman he got pregnant; and Maximo, the finance minister wh o is more interested in money than the revolution. This gripping and intelligent thriller is a standout for Coonts, taking the dea th of Castro as a starting point for an all-too-possible scenario of political turmoil and military brinkmanship. $325,000 ad/prom o; author tour. (Aug.) FYI: In one of this season's more interest ing coincidences, Coonts chooses for his epigraph the same poem b y Jos? Mart! as does Amy Ephron in her book White Rose, reviewed above. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This tex t refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review When a North Korean freighter carrying a carg o of biological weapons runs aground in international waters off Cuba--Rear Admiral Jake Grafton wants go aboard, taking just one other man with him. His new chief of staff, Capt. Pascal, is skep tical and suggests that he takes along a half-dozen well-armed ma rines. Jake's reply is patient and succinct: I don't know what's on that ship.... It just makes sense to have a point man explore the unknown before we risk very many lives. I am going to be the point man because I want to personally see what is there, and I m ake the rules. Understand? Had Capt. Pascal been one of the milli ons of readers of Coonts's six previous books about Grafton, he w ouldn't have raised the issue. Jake is a take-charge guy, the kin d of believable hero trusted by his military superiors (if occasi onally viewed as a loose cannon by politicians), and not even the possibility of an all-out war with Cuba is going to make him sta rt playing it safe. Fidel Castro is very close to death from can cer, and his chief aide plans to win the hearts of the Cuban popu lation and gain control of the government by using a 40-year-old secret weapon against an American city. Meanwhile, Adm. Grafton a nd his carrier fleet have been sent to GuantÃ¥namo Bay in Cuba to supervise the removal of some U.S. biological weapons there. Very soon, Grafton and other Coonts regulars are up to their helmets in action on the air, land, and sea. Along the way, we meet a lar ge cast of vivid supporting players: a Cuban family whose fate is closely linked to Castro's rise and fall and a CIA agent with th e perfect cover--a lawyer for giant tobacco companies who want to make cigarettes in Cuba. We also increase our knowledge of milit ary jargon: strangling the parrot means turning off a radar trans ponder. Cuba is an intriguing and surprisingly compassionate scen ario, in which superb military action alternates with high family drama and political in-fighting. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From B ooklist The popular Coonts mines the original Cuban missile crisi s for source material in his latest military-techno thriller. Wit hout preamble, he introduces the threat: a half-dozen ballistic m issiles Castro and the Russians secretly stashed in silos after t he crisis. Forty years on, Castro is at death's door, his associa tes jockeying for the succession. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is cov ering the extraction from Guantanamo Bay of a chemical/biological weapons stockpile, a task that facilitates Coonts folding in the specs on high-tech military iron (he was a navy pilot before tak ing up scrivening). He gets to operate the equipment through a sn afu: the navy loses track of the toxic warfare weapons. While it searches, a pistol-packing, safe-cracking CIA duo in Havana disco ver what the Cubans have been developing in their lab (creating a polio warhead for their missiles), and, with gunslinging panache , the CIA guys slickly egress hostile territory, carrying critica l targeting information. The winner of the succession struggle kn ows the Americans have found him out, thus setting the table for novel-ending battles around the missile sites, featuring appearan ces by seemingly every weapon in the U.S. armory short of the Bom b. Inevitably, the details about the V-22 Osprey and its kindred overshadow the characters flying the planes, but readers gun for Coonts' books because of their dramatic, diverting action. Settin g the genre's conventions in a post-Castro context, Coonts delive rs the anticipated excitement. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From th e Publisher [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. -Publishers We ekly (starred review) --This text refers to an out of print or u navailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Coonts, mi litary-combat thrillermeister, pits his series character, Jake Gr afton, against a power-mad Cuban bureaucrat armed with Soviet ICB Ms aimed at the U.S. As Fidel Castro lies dying of cancer in Hava na, returning Cuban migrs, government sleazies, radicals, former revolutionaries, CIA smoothies, and even a local baseball hero al l find themselves ensnared in power plays. Just offshore, former Navy flyboy Jake Grafton, now a rear admiral with an aircraft car rier to call his own, and his sidekick, Toad Tarkington, supervis e a routine transfer of empty chemical-bacteriological warheads f rom the American base at Guantánamo Bay. Alas, scheming Cuban Sta te Security head Alejo Vargas and his sadistic sidekick Colonel S antana have cut deals with the notorious gangster El Gato as well as with some North Koreans, so that enough of those warheads wil l end up in a secret laboratory where mad American scientist Olaf Swenson is cooking up a lethal, quick-killing version of the pol io virus. Meanwhile, the Sedano family, with relatives at almost every strata of Cuban society, have their hands full: greedy fina nce minister Maximo Sedano wants to pocket Castro's $54 million S wiss bank account and dig up 47 tons of gold that Castro and Che Guevara supposedly hid when they overthrew Batista; his wife Merc edes, Castro's mistress, fears that Vargas is up to no good; brot her Hector, a somewhat fallen Jesuit priest, wants to preserve Cu ba from those who would exploit it; and youngest brother Ocho, th e baseball star, joins a group of boat people when he finds out h is girlfriend Dora is pregnant. But wait--there's more: ancient b ut still operational Soviet ICBMs, a crack Cuban MIG pilot and th e Mission Impossible high jinks of CIA operatives. Grafton himsel f is less action hero here than cool, seasoned commander who stoi cally accepts the President's impossible order to invade Cuba and stop the next missile crisis without antagonizing the native pop ulation. An overplotted slog of snarling Latinos and everything-y ou-never-needed-to-know about Cuban social history--until the sho oting starts and Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspens e writing yet. (325,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ®1999 , Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt . ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Cuba CHAPTER ON EGuantánamo Bay, on the southeast coast of the island of Cuba, is the prettiest spot on the planet, thought Rear Admiral Jake Graf ton, USN.He was leaning on the railing on top of the carrier Unit ed States's superstructure, her island, a place the sailors calle d Steel Beach. Here off-duty crew members gathered to soak up som e rays and do a few calisthenics. Jake Grafton was not normally a sun worshiper; at sea he rarely visited Steel Beach, preferring to arrange his day so that he could spend at least a half hour ru nning on the flight deck. Today he was dressed in gym shorts, T-s hirt, and tennis shoes, but he had yet to make it to the flight d eck.Grafton was a trim, fit fifty-three years old, a trifle over six feet tall, with short hair turning gray, gray eyes, and a nos e slightly too large for his face. On one temple was a scar, an o ld, faded white slash where a bullet had gouged him years ago.Peo ple who knew him regarded him as the epitome of a competent naval officer. Grafton always put his brain in gear before he opened h is mouth, never lost his cool, and he never lost sight of the goa ls he wanted to accomplish. In short, he was one fine naval offic er and his superiors knew it, which was why he was in charge of t his carrier group lying in Guantánamo Bay.The carrier and her esc orts had been running exercises in the Caribbean for the last wee k. Today the carrier was anchored in the mouth of the bay, with t wo of her larger consorts anchored nearby. To seaward three destr oyerssteamed back and forth, their radars probing the skies.A set of top-secret orders had brought the carrier group here.Jake Gra fton thought about those orders as he studied the two cargo ships lying against the pier through a set of navy binoculars. The shi ps were small, less than eight thousand tons each; larger ships d rew too much water to get against the pier in this harbor. They w ere Nuestra Señora de Colón and Astarte.The order bringing those ships here had not come from some windowless Pentagon cubbyhole; it was no memo drafted by an anonymous civil servant or faceless staff weenie. Oh, no. The order that had brought those ships to t his pier on the southern coast of Cuba had come from the White Ho use, the top of the food chain.Jake Grafton looked past the cargo ships at the warehouses and barracks and administration building s baking in the warm Cuban sun.A paradise, that was the word that described Cuba. A paradise inhabited by communists. And Guantána mo Bay was a lonely little American outpost adhering to the under side of this communist island, the asshole of Cuba some called it .Rear Admiral Grafton could see the cranes moving, the white cont ainers being swung down to the pier from Astarte, which had arriv ed several hours ago. Forklifts took the steel boxes to a hurrica ne-proof warehouse, where no doubt the harbormaster was stacking them three or four deep in neat, tidy military rows.The container s were packages designed to hold chemical and biological weapons, artillery shells and bombs. A trained crew was here to load the weapons stored inside the hurricane-proof warehouse into the cont ainers, which would then be loaded aboard the ship at the pier an d transported to the United States, where the warheads would be d estroyed.Loading the weapons into the containers and getting thec ontainers stowed aboard the second ship was going to take at leas t a week, probably longer. The first ship, Nuestra Señora de Coló n, Our L, St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2000, 3<

2011, ISBN: 9780752825236

pocketboek, gebonden uitgave

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by hi… Meer...

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son., Health Communications Inc; Reissue edition (September 1, 1995), 0, little brown and co, 1956. third printing. Hard cover. Good. No dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. hardcover condition good-signed by previous owner. hardcover condition good-signed by previous owner In the summer of 1864, hopes for a Union victory seem dim. Though slowly strangling from blockade and the ruin of its railroad system, the Confederacy fights on like a wounded tiger, and if Lincoln loses the forthcoming election, whoever wins will almost certainly conclude a peace settlement that will leave the country in two pieces for the forseeable future. What s worse, there are many underground groups in the North those who hate Lincoln, who claim he s violated the Constitution, that he s made himself dictator and [will] never let go of his powers with exactly that goal. Copperhead s too general a term, observes one character, but there are a lot of organizations that trend pretty well the same way. Knights of the Golden Circle, Order of American Knights, Sons of this and Brothers of that. By themselves, I guess they re fairly harmless, but lumped together and manipulated by really smart men, they could be sheer gunpowder. Into this situation comes Ellery Starr, graduate of Phillips Andover and Amherst and the youngest Major of Artillery in the whole Army of the Potomac; wounded once at Antietam, he was rushed back to his unit, but a second and much less grave mishap at Gettysburg kept him the hospital for months with a recurring infection, and now he s been invalided out of the service. Troubled over the political situation, he decides that if he can somehow make the Union effort real to its people, he may be able to help get Lincoln re-elected, so he becomes a correspondent for the New York Tribune. He s present at Chambersburg, Maryland, when Jubal Early s forces burn it, but refuses to write of atrocities that never happened, which gains him the respect of Southern officers. Next he finds himself attached to Barnum s Museum, a rather unconventional artillery battery in Sheridan s forces in the Shenandoah Valley, and in that capacity begins to notice the frequent presence of a wandering preacher named Joseph Westlake and his poke-bonneted daughter Gillian, who seem to be sowing discord and doubt among the Union forces. Gradually it begins to come clear to him that the Westlakes are probably supported by some treasonable group and acting as its agents. Then a Southern friend catches up with him and reveals that the situation is worse than he had thought: the Westlakes are stirring up Southerners as well as Unionists, smuggling arms to the former and sowing defeatism among the latter, seeing to it that burnings and lootings take place where they ll have the most telling effect on morale. Ellery is instrumental in clearing a jam (probably engineered by Westlake) that threatens to make it impossible for Sheridan to get over the Opequon River, and plays a part in the engagement at Cedar Creek but the Westlakes keep slipping through everyone s fingers until he realizes that they re tied in with groups that trace their existence back to the previous decade. Bruce Lancaster s historical novels concentrated chiefly on the Revolution, but in this one he showed that he could portray the Civil War with equal skill. His battle scenes may not be as vivid as Mary Johnston s, but he shows convincingly the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of people determined to either bring Lincoln down or prolong the fighting for their own profit., little brown and co, 1956, 2.5, College Park, Maryland: College Park Aviation Museum, Undated. Brochure. Very good. 8.5 by 11.5 inch sheet, printed on both sides. Illustrations (some in color). This is a map of the lobby level and mezzanine level of the museum, highlighting exhibited aircraft and a temporary exhibit area. Some of the displayed aircraft are replica but others are original. In 1909 after proving the practicality of aviation to the US Army, Wilbur Wright trained the first generation of military aviators at a new airfield in what would come to be known as College Park. The College Park Airport has been home to a century of aviation history, and still operates today, making it the oldest continually operated airport in the world. It is home to many "firsts" in aviation, and is particularly significant for the well-known aviators and aviation inventors who played a part in this field's long history., College Park Aviation Museum, 3, New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2006. First edition. . Hard cover. Very good in very good dust jacket. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Author). HARDCOVER IN DUST JACKET COPYRIGHT, 2007-FIRST EDITION-. PUBLISHED BY CROWN PUBLISHERS-375 PAGES. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Author). HARDCOVER IN DUST JACKET COPYRIGHT, 2007-FIRST EDITION-. PUBLISHED BY CROWN PUBLISHERS-375 PAGES The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Author). HARDCOVER IN DUST JACKET COPYRIGHT, 2007-FIRST EDITION-. PUBLISHED BY CROWN PUBLISHERS-375 PAGES In our lowdown, dispiriting era, Obama s talent for proposing humane, sensible solutions with uplifting, elegant prose does fill one with hope. Michael Kazin, The Washington Post In July 2004, four years before his presidency, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called the audacity of hope. The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama s call for a different brand of politics a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the endless clash of armies we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of our improbable experiment in democracy. He explores those forces from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment. At the heart of this book is Barack Obama s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats from terrorism to pandemic that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, Obama says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them., Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2006, 3, London: New English Library (NEL) 01675, 1974. Book. Very Good. Paperback. 1st NEL edition.. 16mo - over 5¾ - 6¾" tall. Military History No. 3. "A story of bravery, stupidity and treachery played out under the blazing sun of the Punjab." 174 pages + two pages of advertisements for other NEL titles, illustrated w/in-text maps. Tanning, light general wear. Internally tight and clean.., New English Library (NEL) 01675, 1974, 3, N.Y., Grosset & Dunlap, NY [1943]. Hard Cover. vii, 241 p. Copyright by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. ''Air Force was born of a meeting between Jack L. Warner, and General H.H. Arnold, chief of th United States Army Air force. Out of this meeting grew the story of a Boeing B-17 Flying fortress, the Mary Ann, and her heroic crew.' Stock #26974. Red cloth boards; pages darkened, several corners broken off, else good. Cinema, film, movies, fiction, military history., N.Y., Grosset & Dunlap, NY [1943], 0, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1952. Hardcover, dark green cloth boards. Very Good/No Jacket. Adapted from the novel by Vern Sneider. Three act play set at U.S. Army headquarters in Okinawa. Opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York in October 1953. B/w photos from the stageplay by Eileen Darby. 180 pages, corners lightly bumped, endpapers browning, small previous owner's stamp on fep., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1952, 3, Collins. Very Good/Very Good. 2011. Hard Cover. 8vo 000737478X Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. Colour photographs. 304 pages clean and tight. 'Afghanistan is just like Iraq hot, dusty and full of people who want to kill you', SSgt Simon Fuller, Royal Engineer Search Advisor. Bomb Hunters tells the story of the British army's elite bomb disposal experts, men who face death every day in the most dangerous region on earth – Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Bomb Hunters are up against the Improvised Explosive Device – the IED – the deadly homemade bombs planted by the Taliban. Hard to detect and easy to trigger, an estimated 10 bombs for every one of the 10,000 British troops have been planted in the region. IEDs are now the main killer of British troops in Afghanistan and the ultimate psychological weapon. Bomb Hunters work in 50-degree heat as they take the 'long walk' into the kill zone, defusing as many as 15 bombs a day. In the past year the casualty rate has soared as the troops have become locked into a deadly game of cat and mouse – to locate and deactivate the deadly bombs before they maim and kill soldiers, police and civilians. Skill, cold courage and inevitably pure luck play a huge part in the survival of these men and as the British public have already seen – a single lapse of concentration can result in instant death. Ex-paratrooper, now defence journalist, Sean Rayment, takes the reader on a journey into the heat and dust of Helmand Province as he meets these courageous soldiers while they put their lives at risk to prevent other British troops falling victim to the IED. He interviews the Bomb Hunters as they perform their duties on the frontline and paints a breathtaking picture of what life is like for the men who play poker with their own lives every day, who live knowing the enemy watches their every move, waiting for a weakness to show itself, a pattern in technique to be exploited, or an error to be made that triggers the device itself. This is as vivid and dramatic as war reporting gets, mixing 'close to the bone' narrative and dead-pan black humour from the Bomb Hunters themselves, some of whom were subsequently killed in action. ., Collins, 2011, 3, London: Trojan Press. Very Good-. 1974. Paperback. Mass Market PB . Large sticker ghost on front cover, some edge wear and scuffing, old dealer stamp and price on front endpaper, slight foxing. ; Nice tight flat copy. Undated but assumed mid 1970s. ; In the eyes of his comrades he was a traitor, in the eyes of the Resistance a hero. Sergeant Hans Kramer fought with the German Army for two years before deserting to join the French resistance. Was he playing a double game? ., Trojan Press, 1974, 3, Random House, USA, 1978. Hardcover (Printed Boards). Good (ex-library)/No Dust Jacket. Hardcover (Printed Boards). *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Random House, USA, 1978. *** CONDITION: This book is in good (ex-library) condition. More specifically: Ex-library with usual marks, stamps, stickers. Edges of boards have superficial edgewear and corners are heavily bumped. Pages are lightly creased. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: Illus. in full color. Three brave little bears explore the inside of a mysterious old tree and go into, up, through, over, down, and out. Stan and Jan Berenstain were both born in 1923 in Philadelphia. They didn't know each other as children, but met later at school, at the Philadelphia College of Art. They liked each other right away, and found out that the both enjoyed the same kinds of books, plays, music and art. During World War II, Stan was a medical assistant in the Army, and Jan worked in an airplane factory. When the war was over, they got married and began to work together as artists and writers, primarily drawing cartoons for popular magazines. After having their two sons Leo and Michael, the Berenstains decided to write some funny children's books that their children and other children could read and enjoy. Their first published children's book was called The Big Honey Hunt. It was about a family of bears, who later became known as the "Berenstain Bears." *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Children & Young Adult; Children's Picture Books; ISBN: 0394839102. ISBN/EAN: 9780394839103. Inventory No: 23070215.. 9780394839103, Random House, 1978, 2.5, John Murray. Very Good. 5.12 x 0.83 x 7.76 inches. Paperback. 2007. 320 pages. <br>Completely brilliant' Ian Hislop It seemed a simp le enough idea at the outset: to assemble a team of eleven men to play cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe. Exce pt - hold on a minute - that's not a simple idea at all . And whe n you throw in incompetent airline officials, amorous Argentine C olonels' wives, cunning Bajan drug dealers, gay Australian waiter s, overzealous American anti-terrorist police, idiot Welshmen dre ssed as Santa Claus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and whole armies of pitch-invading Antarctic penguins, you quickly arrive at a whole lot more than you bargained for. Harry Thompson's hilarious book tells the story of one of those great idiotic enterprises that o nly an Englishman could have dreamed up, and only a bunch of Engl ishmen could possibly have wished to carry out. ., John Murray, 2007, 3, Piccadilly Press. Very Good. 198mm / 129mm. Paperback. 2009. 281 pages. <br>'Run!' Mad Dog shouts! 'Run, Hattie - RUN!' I turn and see the impossible - shadowy figures are filling the room! T he graffiti on the walls is not graffiti at all - its real people and they're peeling off the walls! Hattie Jackson is just an ord inary fifteen-year-old - until her mother disappears and Hattie's life is turned upside down. With the help of her friend Mad Dog, Hattie discovers the truth about her mother's 'other life' and t he role she must now take on to defeat a terrifying army of evil Ninjutsu warriors, led by Praying Mantis - the most deadly assass in known to man... A thrilling page turner by an exciting new aut hor. AUTHOR: Jane Prowse is a writer and director who has worked mostly in theatre and television. She lives in North London with her husband and their two cats, Mitten and blind Buffy. Jane has directed all kinds of dramas - both adult and children's, and has written for Lynda La Plante on Trial and Retribution and The Com mander, which she also directed. Jane loves traveling and wildlif e - especially when the two coincide. She does yoga, plays tennis , adores swimming and sometimes goes to the gym. She studied Dram a at university and was taught by Anthony Minghella - whose passi on for storytelling inspired her. Hattori Hachi - The Revenge of Praying Mantis is her first book. ., Piccadilly Press, 2009, 3, Bantam Press. Good. 6 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches. Paperback. 2007. 400 pages. <br>The breathtaking new thriller from the author of B ravo Two Zero. Body guarding a TV crew on the streets of war-to rn Basra, ex-deniable operator Nick Stone's life is saved by a re porter's swift action as a roadside bomb explodes. When the man l ater vanishes, Stone is asked to find him. The trail leads from I raq to Bermuda, London and Kabul, the dark and brutal city where governments, terrorism and big business inexorably collide. Caugh t in the crossfire, his nightmare is only just beginning, for the hunter has suddenly become the hunted. . . Editorial Reviews R eview A heart-thumping read. -Daily Express McNab's great asset is that the heart of his fiction is non-fiction: other thriller writers do their research, but he has actually been there. -Sunda y Times About the Author Andy McNab was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestselle rs, Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action. He is the author of the bestselling novels, Remote Control, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last L ight, Liberation Day and Dark Winter. Excerpt. Reprinted by per mission. All rights reserved. 1 Tuesday, 27 February 2007 0015 h rs North-west of Basra The noise and heat, gloom and sheer fucki ng claustrophobia in the back of the Warrior were oppressive enou gh, but now the armour was suddenly clanging three times a second like the world's strongest madman was using it for sledgehammer practice. We were taking rounds. It could only mean we were closi ng in on target. The engine roared and the tracks screeched over the rock. The front end dipped hard. 'Fuck!' the Scouse driver screamed over the radio net, as he stood on the anchors. 'There' s a fuck'n' bastard tank!' The commander yelled back so loud I h ad to lift the PRR pad from my ear. 'Go right, you cunt - you'll hit the fucker!' Until a few years ago, the only way troops could communicate with each other was by shouting or hand signals, but every man and his dog now wore a personal role radio. It had rev olutionized the infantry. Just four inches by six, with a headset consisting of an ear pad, Velcro strap and little boom mike, PRR acted effectively as a secure chat net between troops. The Chal lenger's thundering growl had come from our left. The tracks sque aled and we gripped whatever we could get hold of to stop ourselv es being flung from our seats. We took more small-arms fire into the hull, and then there was a much louder bang two feet away fro m my shoulder. 'RPG!' Rocket-propelled grenades could punch hol es in concrete walls. I knew it would just bounce off the skirt o f bar armour surrounding us, but I still felt like I was trapped in a locked safe while people on the outside were fucking about w ith blowtorches and gelignite. It wasn't simply that I couldn't see what was happening. It was having no control that bothered me . I was at the mercy of the driver, the gunner, and the commander in the turret. He was a platoon sergeant called Rhett or Red - I didn't catch it when we met, and then we got past the point wher e I could ask again. Our Warrior was part of the battle group's recce platoon. Dom, Pete and I were embedded. 'Entombed, more lik e,' Pete said. He'd been a tankie himself once upon a time, and e ven he didn't like the lid coming down. We were jammed shoulder t o shoulder in the eerie red glow of the night-lights. Rhett's scu ffed and dusty desert boots were level with my face. The gunner w as up there on his left, frantically feeding rounds into the 30mm cannon. The wagon took one final hard right and came to a jarri ng, gut-wrenching halt. The stern reared up under the momentum, t hen crashed down like a breaking wave. 'Dismount! Dismount!' Rh ett's shout was drowned by the cannon kicking off above us. Dom got a punch from one of the Kingsmen and hit the button above his head. The rear-door hydraulics whined. I could see stars, hear t he roar of gunfire and heavy machinery. The four recce guys tumb led out into the inky blackness. Pete shoved a hand over his lens and we followed. My Timberlands slid and twisted on the rubble as I ducked down against the bar armour, gulping fresh but dust-l aden air. Oil wells blazed out of control on the horizon. Gases a nd crude were being forced out of the ground under phenomenal pre ssure, shooting flames a hundred feet into the air. The night wa s filled with the thunder of 30mm cannon kicking off across the d ried-up wadi bed that separated us from our target - the building s no more than a hundred away. It had prevented the drivers going right up to the front doors. I was hungry for more air. My nost rils filled with sand, but I didn't care. I had my feet on the gr ound and I was in control of them. And, thanks to the mortar plat oon, I could see what was happening. Their 81mm tubes had filled the sky with illume. Balls of blazing magnesium hung in the air a bove the town before beginning their descent, casting shadows lef t and right as they swung under their parachutes, silhouetting th e two massive Challengers rumbling left and right of us. Bright muzzle flashes from four or five AKs sparked up from the line of houses that edged the built-up area. Our gunner switched from th e 30mm Rarden cannon to the 7.62mm Hughes Helicopter Chain Gun to dish out a different edition of the same good news. Two Warrior s lurched to a halt alongside us, throwing up a plume of dust. My nose was totally clogged now. Guys spilled out of the back doors with bayonets fixed. Pete adjusted the oversized Batman utility belt round his waist where he stuffed his lenses and shit, and r aised his infrared camera to his face. He was like a kid in a swe etshop as the mass of armour surrounding the town spewed infantry into the sand. Dom got ready to do his Jeremy Bowen bit to came ra. He rehearsed a few soundbites to himself as Pete sorted the s ound check. 'The Kingsmen of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment ar e halfway through their six-month tour. They have been shot at tw enty-four/seven by small arms, RPGs and mortars, but ask any one of them and they'll tell you it's what they signed up to do.' To night they were about to kick the shit out of the insurgents who were within spitting distance of taking over Al Gurnan and starti ng to claim the ground as their own. They had to be broken. An in surgent stronghold soon became another link in the supply chain f rom Iran, just ten clicks away. The Kingsmen's mission was to do the breaking, and ours was to report it. Dom talked, Pete filmed him, and I had to make sure the two didn't get shot, snatched, o r run over by a set of tracks sent screaming across the desert by a bunch of jabbering Scousers. It wasn't easy. When Dom started playing newsman, he seemed to think there was a magic six-foot f orcefield standing between him and any incoming fire. Sometimes h e thought he didn't even need to wear a helmet. But in this war t he enemy didn't give a shit whether you were a journalist or a so ldier. If you were a foreigner they wanted you out, preferably in a body-bag. If they could get you alive, so much the better: you 'd be the new star of The Al Jazeera Show, and all you could do w as hope your next appearance wouldn't end with them slicing off y our head online. The chain gun ceased fire. The Kingsmen swarmed down into the wadi. Dom made to follow, but I grabbed him and p ulled him on to his knees. Another flurry of illume kicked off ov er the town and the cannon opened up again. I had to scream into his ear: 'They said not to go forward until they call us! Wait. L et them get on with it.' The Kingsmen vanished for a few seconds in the dead ground of the riverbed, before reappearing on the fa r bank, screaming and shouting all sorts of Scouse shit they prob ably didn't even understand themselves. They kicked their way th rough a series of old wooden doors and into whatever chaos lay th e other side. ., Bantam Press, 2007, 2.5, St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.13 inches. Paperback. 2000. 384 pages. <br>The hero of six New York Times bestsellers by Step hen Coonts, author ofFlight of the Intruder and Fortunes of War, returns as the United States and Cuba engage in a terrifying game of brinksmanship, a gamble that could break the last military ta boo and destroy both countries. In Cuba, an ailing Fidel Castro lies dying. Across the Straits of Florida, an anxious US awaits t he inevitable power struggle, determined to have a say in who con trols this strategically invaluable island. And the American Pres ident has an added reason for concern: an Arms Control Conference has just begun in Paris and, unbeknownst to either the American public or Cuba, the US has hidden secret weapons inside the Ameri can base on Cuba's Guantanemo Bay. But no secret remains one for long, and when one of the Cuban factions finds out about the weap ons, the excitement begins. Only Admiral Grafton, on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba, knows the impending danger. Only Grafton can save America from a disaster that would make the Bay of Pigs look like child's play. In Cuba, Stephen Coonts captures the ominous feel of a tropical powderkeg about to explode in a no vel filled with the action and drama for which he is famous. Edi torial Reviews Review Dramatic, diverting action...Coonts deliv ers. ?Booklist [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. ?Publisher s Weekly (starred review) Coonts manages to put together the var ious subplots into a satisfying climax that includes enough Tomah awk missiles, stealth bombers and staccato action to satisfy his most demanding fans. ?USA Today --This text refers to an out of p rint or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Ste phen Coonts is the author of The Disciple, The Assassin, and the Deep Black and Saucers series, among many other bestsellers. His first novel, the classic flying tale Flight of the Intruder, spen t more than six months at the top of The New York Times bestselle r list. A motion picture based on the book was released in 1991. His novels have been published around the world and translated in to more than a dozen languages. In 1986, he was honored by the U. S. Naval Institute with its Author of the Year Award. He is also the editor of four anthologies, Combat, On Glorious Wings, Victor y and War in the Air. Coonts served in the Navy from 1969 to 1977 , including two combat cruises on the USS Enterprise during the l ast years of the Vietnam War. --This text refers to an out of pri nt or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The future of Cuba is up for grabs in this crackerjack speculativ e thriller by the author of Flight of the Intruder and Fortunes o f War. Coonts regulars Rear Admiral Jake Grafton and staff operat ions officer Toad Tarkington are providing military cover for a s hipment of American chemical and biological weaponsAweapons that should have been destroyed long agoAout of Guant namo Bay, where they have been in storage. When the shipment goes missing, it's G rafton's job to find it and get those weapons back. But that's th e least of his worries, because Cuba is developing its own biolog ical weapons; as soon as they are ready, they will be loaded onto missiles already aimed at American cities. Meanwhile, an aged Ca stro is dying of cancer, and even if he lives long enough to name a successor, Alejo Vargas, head of the Cuban secret police, has his own plans for the future of the country. While there's little doubt that Grafton will save the day, Coonts's sharply drawn cha ractersAincluding dapper CIA operative and biological weapons exp ert William Henry Chance and his safe-cracking sidekick, Tommy Ca rmelliniAand a plethora of intersecting plot lines take what one character calls another Cuban missile crisis to a rousing action finale. But the surprise pleasure here is how clearly Coonts pain ts a picture of Cuba by focusing on the three Soldano brothersAHe ctor, a Jesuit priest who may be Castro's chosen successor; Ocho, the handsome ballplayer who has the chance to sail to Florida wi th the woman he got pregnant; and Maximo, the finance minister wh o is more interested in money than the revolution. This gripping and intelligent thriller is a standout for Coonts, taking the dea th of Castro as a starting point for an all-too-possible scenario of political turmoil and military brinkmanship. $325,000 ad/prom o; author tour. (Aug.) FYI: In one of this season's more interest ing coincidences, Coonts chooses for his epigraph the same poem b y Jos? Mart! as does Amy Ephron in her book White Rose, reviewed above. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This tex t refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review When a North Korean freighter carrying a carg o of biological weapons runs aground in international waters off Cuba--Rear Admiral Jake Grafton wants go aboard, taking just one other man with him. His new chief of staff, Capt. Pascal, is skep tical and suggests that he takes along a half-dozen well-armed ma rines. Jake's reply is patient and succinct: I don't know what's on that ship.... It just makes sense to have a point man explore the unknown before we risk very many lives. I am going to be the point man because I want to personally see what is there, and I m ake the rules. Understand? Had Capt. Pascal been one of the milli ons of readers of Coonts's six previous books about Grafton, he w ouldn't have raised the issue. Jake is a take-charge guy, the kin d of believable hero trusted by his military superiors (if occasi onally viewed as a loose cannon by politicians), and not even the possibility of an all-out war with Cuba is going to make him sta rt playing it safe. Fidel Castro is very close to death from can cer, and his chief aide plans to win the hearts of the Cuban popu lation and gain control of the government by using a 40-year-old secret weapon against an American city. Meanwhile, Adm. Grafton a nd his carrier fleet have been sent to GuantÃ¥namo Bay in Cuba to supervise the removal of some U.S. biological weapons there. Very soon, Grafton and other Coonts regulars are up to their helmets in action on the air, land, and sea. Along the way, we meet a lar ge cast of vivid supporting players: a Cuban family whose fate is closely linked to Castro's rise and fall and a CIA agent with th e perfect cover--a lawyer for giant tobacco companies who want to make cigarettes in Cuba. We also increase our knowledge of milit ary jargon: strangling the parrot means turning off a radar trans ponder. Cuba is an intriguing and surprisingly compassionate scen ario, in which superb military action alternates with high family drama and political in-fighting. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From B ooklist The popular Coonts mines the original Cuban missile crisi s for source material in his latest military-techno thriller. Wit hout preamble, he introduces the threat: a half-dozen ballistic m issiles Castro and the Russians secretly stashed in silos after t he crisis. Forty years on, Castro is at death's door, his associa tes jockeying for the succession. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is cov ering the extraction from Guantanamo Bay of a chemical/biological weapons stockpile, a task that facilitates Coonts folding in the specs on high-tech military iron (he was a navy pilot before tak ing up scrivening). He gets to operate the equipment through a sn afu: the navy loses track of the toxic warfare weapons. While it searches, a pistol-packing, safe-cracking CIA duo in Havana disco ver what the Cubans have been developing in their lab (creating a polio warhead for their missiles), and, with gunslinging panache , the CIA guys slickly egress hostile territory, carrying critica l targeting information. The winner of the succession struggle kn ows the Americans have found him out, thus setting the table for novel-ending battles around the missile sites, featuring appearan ces by seemingly every weapon in the U.S. armory short of the Bom b. Inevitably, the details about the V-22 Osprey and its kindred overshadow the characters flying the planes, but readers gun for Coonts' books because of their dramatic, diverting action. Settin g the genre's conventions in a post-Castro context, Coonts delive rs the anticipated excitement. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From th e Publisher [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. -Publishers We ekly (starred review) --This text refers to an out of print or u navailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Coonts, mi litary-combat thrillermeister, pits his series character, Jake Gr afton, against a power-mad Cuban bureaucrat armed with Soviet ICB Ms aimed at the U.S. As Fidel Castro lies dying of cancer in Hava na, returning Cuban migrs, government sleazies, radicals, former revolutionaries, CIA smoothies, and even a local baseball hero al l find themselves ensnared in power plays. Just offshore, former Navy flyboy Jake Grafton, now a rear admiral with an aircraft car rier to call his own, and his sidekick, Toad Tarkington, supervis e a routine transfer of empty chemical-bacteriological warheads f rom the American base at Guantánamo Bay. Alas, scheming Cuban Sta te Security head Alejo Vargas and his sadistic sidekick Colonel S antana have cut deals with the notorious gangster El Gato as well as with some North Koreans, so that enough of those warheads wil l end up in a secret laboratory where mad American scientist Olaf Swenson is cooking up a lethal, quick-killing version of the pol io virus. Meanwhile, the Sedano family, with relatives at almost every strata of Cuban society, have their hands full: greedy fina nce minister Maximo Sedano wants to pocket Castro's $54 million S wiss bank account and dig up 47 tons of gold that Castro and Che Guevara supposedly hid when they overthrew Batista; his wife Merc edes, Castro's mistress, fears that Vargas is up to no good; brot her Hector, a somewhat fallen Jesuit priest, wants to preserve Cu ba from those who would exploit it; and youngest brother Ocho, th e baseball star, joins a group of boat people when he finds out h is girlfriend Dora is pregnant. But wait--there's more: ancient b ut still operational Soviet ICBMs, a crack Cuban MIG pilot and th e Mission Impossible high jinks of CIA operatives. Grafton himsel f is less action hero here than cool, seasoned commander who stoi cally accepts the President's impossible order to invade Cuba and stop the next missile crisis without antagonizing the native pop ulation. An overplotted slog of snarling Latinos and everything-y ou-never-needed-to-know about Cuban social history--until the sho oting starts and Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspens e writing yet. (325,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ®1999 , Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt . ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Cuba CHAPTER ON EGuantánamo Bay, on the southeast coast of the island of Cuba, is the prettiest spot on the planet, thought Rear Admiral Jake Graf ton, USN.He was leaning on the railing on top of the carrier Unit ed States's superstructure, her island, a place the sailors calle d Steel Beach. Here off-duty crew members gathered to soak up som e rays and do a few calisthenics. Jake Grafton was not normally a sun worshiper; at sea he rarely visited Steel Beach, preferring to arrange his day so that he could spend at least a half hour ru nning on the flight deck. Today he was dressed in gym shorts, T-s hirt, and tennis shoes, but he had yet to make it to the flight d eck.Grafton was a trim, fit fifty-three years old, a trifle over six feet tall, with short hair turning gray, gray eyes, and a nos e slightly too large for his face. On one temple was a scar, an o ld, faded white slash where a bullet had gouged him years ago.Peo ple who knew him regarded him as the epitome of a competent naval officer. Grafton always put his brain in gear before he opened h is mouth, never lost his cool, and he never lost sight of the goa ls he wanted to accomplish. In short, he was one fine naval offic er and his superiors knew it, which was why he was in charge of t his carrier group lying in Guantánamo Bay.The carrier and her esc orts had been running exercises in the Caribbean for the last wee k. Today the carrier was anchored in the mouth of the bay, with t wo of her larger consorts anchored nearby. To seaward three destr oyerssteamed back and forth, their radars probing the skies.A set of top-secret orders had brought the carrier group here.Jake Gra fton thought about those orders as he studied the two cargo ships lying against the pier through a set of navy binoculars. The shi ps were small, less than eight thousand tons each; larger ships d rew too much water to get against the pier in this harbor. They w ere Nuestra Señora de Colón and Astarte.The order bringing those ships here had not come from some windowless Pentagon cubbyhole; it was no memo drafted by an anonymous civil servant or faceless staff weenie. Oh, no. The order that had brought those ships to t his pier on the southern coast of Cuba had come from the White Ho use, the top of the food chain.Jake Grafton looked past the cargo ships at the warehouses and barracks and administration building s baking in the warm Cuban sun.A paradise, that was the word that described Cuba. A paradise inhabited by communists. And Guantána mo Bay was a lonely little American outpost adhering to the under side of this communist island, the asshole of Cuba some called it .Rear Admiral Grafton could see the cranes moving, the white cont ainers being swung down to the pier from Astarte, which had arriv ed several hours ago. Forklifts took the steel boxes to a hurrica ne-proof warehouse, where no doubt the harbormaster was stacking them three or four deep in neat, tidy military rows.The container s were packages designed to hold chemical and biological weapons, artillery shells and bombs. A trained crew was here to load the weapons stored inside the hurricane-proof warehouse into the cont ainers, which would then be loaded aboard the ship at the pier an d transported to the United States, where the warheads would be d estroyed.Loading the weapons into the containers and getting thec ontainers stowed aboard the second ship was going to take at leas t a week, probably longer. The first ship, Nuestra Señora de Coló n, Our L, St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2000, 3<

2010, ISBN: 9780752825236

Phoenix. Good. 5.98 x 0.79 x 9.17 inches. Paperback. 2010. 279 pages. Cover worn.<br>Salonika, 1940. In the backrooms of bar bers, envelopes change hands, and in the Club de Saloniq… Meer...

Phoenix. Good. 5.98 x 0.79 x 9.17 inches. Paperback. 2010. 279 pages. Cover worn.<br>Salonika, 1940. In the backrooms of bar bers, envelopes change hands, and in the Club de Salonique the ai r is thick with whispers. Costa Zannis is the city's dashing chie f detective, and as unknown ships and British travel writers tric kle through the port, he is a man very much in demand. Having hel ped defeat Italy in the highlands of Macedonia, Zannis returns to a city holding its breath. And as the situation in Germany worse ns, Zannis becomes involved in a plot to smuggle Jews to Istanbul through the back door of Europe. The British hear he can penetra te the continent's closed borders, and soon Zannis is embroiled i n the resistance, and in a reckless love affair that could jeopar dise everything. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Set i n Greece in 1940, this powerful WWII thriller from Furst (The Spi es of Warsaw) focuses on Costa Zannis, a senior Salonika police o fficial known for his honesty and ability to settle matters befor e they got out of hand. As the Nazis' intentions for Europe's Jew s becomes clear, Zannis goes out of his way to aid refugees seeki ng to escape Germany. When Mussolini's troops invade Greece, Zann is joins the army, where he meets Capt. Marko Pavlic, who as a po liceman in Zagreb investigated crimes committed by the Ustashi, C roatian fascists. With their similar politics, Zannis and Pavlic soon become friends and allies. Subtle details foreshadow the com ing crimes perpetrated by the Nazis in the Balkans. For example, Zannis learns from a colleague that someone has been taking photo s of the contents of a synagogue so that the Germans can more eas ily identify what to plunder. Furst fans will welcome seeing more books set in less familiar parts of Europe. (June) Copyright ® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All r ights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavaila ble edition of this title. From Booklist *Starred Review* Furst' s early WWII espionage novels--The World at Night (1996) and Red Gold (1999)--took place in Paris during the Occupation, but latel y he has moved earlier in time, to the war's beginnings, when spi es of all stripes, official and unofficial, were gathering inform ation and securing alliances for the conflagration to come. He ha s also moved to the edges of the European theater, to Poland in S pies of Warsaw (2008) and now to Greece and the Balkans. When thi s story begins, Greece is at war with Italy, and Costa Zannis, a policeman in the northern Greek port city of Salonika, recently i njured in battle, has reported back for duty at his old job. Spie s--English, Turkish, Bulgarian--are swarming the city, as everyon e awaits the Nazi response to the Greek victories over the Italia ns. Inevitably, Zannis becomes involved in the intrigue, helping to ferry German Jews from Berlin through Greece to neutral Turkey . And, just as inevitably, he falls in love--Furst has always exc elled at portraying the way passion blooms while storms gather. T here is nothing especially new about this entry in the Furst cano n, but the Balkan setting adds another element of tension, as the oft-invaded region faces yet another onslaught. And, once again, Furst captures in brilliant high-definition the roiling, contrad ictory emotions that flare when in wartime. When somebody takes y our country, you help them or you fight them, Zannis' friend, Pav lic, a patriot from Zagreb, says. Yes, but Zannis is equally driv en by desires to protect his family and claim a separate peace fo r himself and his lover. On that delicate psychological fault lin e, Furst has carved a fabulous career. --Bill Ott --This text ref ers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Abo ut the Author Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of th e historical spy novel. Now translated into seventeen languages, he is the bestselling author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Po lish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, B lood of Victory, Dark Voyage, andThe Foreign Correspondent Born i n New York, he now lives in Paris and on Long Island. From the H ardcover edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavai lable edition of this title. Review Unfolds like a vivid dream . . . One couldn't ask for a more engrossing novel.--The Wall Stre et Journal Impeccable historical fiction . . . intelligent [and] entertaining.--Los Angeles Times Furst vividly [mixes] love and adventure. . . . His books combine exhaustive research with exce ptional narrative skill.--The Washington Post Brilliant . . . to ld with unusual detail and flair.--Alan Cheuse, National Public R adio NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Los Angeles Time s ? The Seattle Times ? St. Louis Post-Dispatch Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ? The Globe and Mail --This text refers to an out of pr int or unavailable edition of this title. From Bookmarks Magazin e Spies of the Balkans is a cut above the usual espionage fare; i t excels in plot, character, and atmosphere--an unusual combinati on for the genre. Zannis, a younger prototype of characters seen in Furst's previous novels, especially captivated critics, as did the author's Furstland, a twilight realm of people on the run--r efugees, Jews, leftists and others out of political favor (Denver Post). Richly researched, the novel offers a compelling portrait of wartime, with few clichés. Only the Chicago Sun-Times critici zed some less-developed characters and the plethora of historical detail. Most readers, however, will find that there is no more i ntelligent or gripping writer of spy fiction today than Alan Furs t(Daily Beast). --This text refers to an out of print or unavaila ble edition of this title. ., Phoenix, 2010, 2.5, Hodder & Stoughton. Good. 18 x 1cm. Paperback. 2003. New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver has long thrille d fans with tales of masterful villains and their nefarious ways, and the brilliant minds who bring them to justice. Now the autho r of the Lincoln Rhyme series has collected for the first time hi s award-winning, spine-tingling stories of suspense -- stories th at will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination. A beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a daughter begs her father not to go fishing in an area where there have be en a series of brutal killings; a contemporary of the playwright William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Jeffery Deaver's most beloved character, criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, is b ack to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance. Diverse, pro vocative, eerie and inspired, this collection of Jeffery Deaver's best stories exhibits the amazing range and signature plot twist s that have earned him the title "master of ticking-bomb suspense " (People). With nods to O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe, these beau tifully crafted pieces, never before compiled in one volume, puls e with subtle intrigue and Deaver's incomparable imagination. ., Hodder & Stoughton, 2003, 2.5, Headline Review. Very Good. 5.16 x 1.1 x 7.68 inches. Paperback. 2002. 448 pages. <br>The greatest prize and the most deadly -- the crow n of England Reay Tannahill's enthralling novel is a family saga in the grand tradition, a tale of brother against brother, cousin against cousin, of love, hate and intrigue, of women inescapably entangled in the fates of their men, and of a mystery that has e xercised people's minds for more than five hundred years. At the heart of it all is the complex human being known to history as Ri chard III, a king whose reign is darkened by the murder of the yo ung Princes in the Tower, but who also found a touching love with the woman he married, and possessed immense courage. Here, broug ht vividly to life in this most moving novel, is a man who inspir ed loyalty and hatred in almost equal measure, until at last the implacable enmity of one woman brought about his downfall. ., Headline Review, 2002, 3, St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.13 inches. Paperback. 2000. 384 pages. <br>The hero of six New York Times bestsellers by Step hen Coonts, author ofFlight of the Intruder and Fortunes of War, returns as the United States and Cuba engage in a terrifying game of brinksmanship, a gamble that could break the last military ta boo and destroy both countries. In Cuba, an ailing Fidel Castro lies dying. Across the Straits of Florida, an anxious US awaits t he inevitable power struggle, determined to have a say in who con trols this strategically invaluable island. And the American Pres ident has an added reason for concern: an Arms Control Conference has just begun in Paris and, unbeknownst to either the American public or Cuba, the US has hidden secret weapons inside the Ameri can base on Cuba's Guantanemo Bay. But no secret remains one for long, and when one of the Cuban factions finds out about the weap ons, the excitement begins. Only Admiral Grafton, on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba, knows the impending danger. Only Grafton can save America from a disaster that would make the Bay of Pigs look like child's play. In Cuba, Stephen Coonts captures the ominous feel of a tropical powderkeg about to explode in a no vel filled with the action and drama for which he is famous. Edi torial Reviews Review Dramatic, diverting action...Coonts deliv ers. ?Booklist [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. ?Publisher s Weekly (starred review) Coonts manages to put together the var ious subplots into a satisfying climax that includes enough Tomah awk missiles, stealth bombers and staccato action to satisfy his most demanding fans. ?USA Today --This text refers to an out of p rint or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Ste phen Coonts is the author of The Disciple, The Assassin, and the Deep Black and Saucers series, among many other bestsellers. His first novel, the classic flying tale Flight of the Intruder, spen t more than six months at the top of The New York Times bestselle r list. A motion picture based on the book was released in 1991. His novels have been published around the world and translated in to more than a dozen languages. In 1986, he was honored by the U. S. Naval Institute with its Author of the Year Award. He is also the editor of four anthologies, Combat, On Glorious Wings, Victor y and War in the Air. Coonts served in the Navy from 1969 to 1977 , including two combat cruises on the USS Enterprise during the l ast years of the Vietnam War. --This text refers to an out of pri nt or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The future of Cuba is up for grabs in this crackerjack speculativ e thriller by the author of Flight of the Intruder and Fortunes o f War. Coonts regulars Rear Admiral Jake Grafton and staff operat ions officer Toad Tarkington are providing military cover for a s hipment of American chemical and biological weaponsAweapons that should have been destroyed long agoAout of Guant namo Bay, where they have been in storage. When the shipment goes missing, it's G rafton's job to find it and get those weapons back. But that's th e least of his worries, because Cuba is developing its own biolog ical weapons; as soon as they are ready, they will be loaded onto missiles already aimed at American cities. Meanwhile, an aged Ca stro is dying of cancer, and even if he lives long enough to name a successor, Alejo Vargas, head of the Cuban secret police, has his own plans for the future of the country. While there's little doubt that Grafton will save the day, Coonts's sharply drawn cha ractersAincluding dapper CIA operative and biological weapons exp ert William Henry Chance and his safe-cracking sidekick, Tommy Ca rmelliniAand a plethora of intersecting plot lines take what one character calls another Cuban missile crisis to a rousing action finale. But the surprise pleasure here is how clearly Coonts pain ts a picture of Cuba by focusing on the three Soldano brothersAHe ctor, a Jesuit priest who may be Castro's chosen successor; Ocho, the handsome ballplayer who has the chance to sail to Florida wi th the woman he got pregnant; and Maximo, the finance minister wh o is more interested in money than the revolution. This gripping and intelligent thriller is a standout for Coonts, taking the dea th of Castro as a starting point for an all-too-possible scenario of political turmoil and military brinkmanship. $325,000 ad/prom o; author tour. (Aug.) FYI: In one of this season's more interest ing coincidences, Coonts chooses for his epigraph the same poem b y Jos? Mart! as does Amy Ephron in her book White Rose, reviewed above. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This tex t refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review When a North Korean freighter carrying a carg o of biological weapons runs aground in international waters off Cuba--Rear Admiral Jake Grafton wants go aboard, taking just one other man with him. His new chief of staff, Capt. Pascal, is skep tical and suggests that he takes along a half-dozen well-armed ma rines. Jake's reply is patient and succinct: I don't know what's on that ship.... It just makes sense to have a point man explore the unknown before we risk very many lives. I am going to be the point man because I want to personally see what is there, and I m ake the rules. Understand? Had Capt. Pascal been one of the milli ons of readers of Coonts's six previous books about Grafton, he w ouldn't have raised the issue. Jake is a take-charge guy, the kin d of believable hero trusted by his military superiors (if occasi onally viewed as a loose cannon by politicians), and not even the possibility of an all-out war with Cuba is going to make him sta rt playing it safe. Fidel Castro is very close to death from can cer, and his chief aide plans to win the hearts of the Cuban popu lation and gain control of the government by using a 40-year-old secret weapon against an American city. Meanwhile, Adm. Grafton a nd his carrier fleet have been sent to Guantånamo Bay in Cuba to supervise the removal of some U.S. biological weapons there. Very soon, Grafton and other Coonts regulars are up to their helmets in action on the air, land, and sea. Along the way, we meet a lar ge cast of vivid supporting players: a Cuban family whose fate is closely linked to Castro's rise and fall and a CIA agent with th e perfect cover--a lawyer for giant tobacco companies who want to make cigarettes in Cuba. We also increase our knowledge of milit ary jargon: strangling the parrot means turning off a radar trans ponder. Cuba is an intriguing and surprisingly compassionate scen ario, in which superb military action alternates with high family drama and political in-fighting. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From B ooklist The popular Coonts mines the original Cuban missile crisi s for source material in his latest military-techno thriller. Wit hout preamble, he introduces the threat: a half-dozen ballistic m issiles Castro and the Russians secretly stashed in silos after t he crisis. Forty years on, Castro is at death's door, his associa tes jockeying for the succession. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is cov ering the extraction from Guantanamo Bay of a chemical/biological weapons stockpile, a task that facilitates Coonts folding in the specs on high-tech military iron (he was a navy pilot before tak ing up scrivening). He gets to operate the equipment through a sn afu: the navy loses track of the toxic warfare weapons. While it searches, a pistol-packing, safe-cracking CIA duo in Havana disco ver what the Cubans have been developing in their lab (creating a polio warhead for their missiles), and, with gunslinging panache , the CIA guys slickly egress hostile territory, carrying critica l targeting information. The winner of the succession struggle kn ows the Americans have found him out, thus setting the table for novel-ending battles around the missile sites, featuring appearan ces by seemingly every weapon in the U.S. armory short of the Bom b. Inevitably, the details about the V-22 Osprey and its kindred overshadow the characters flying the planes, but readers gun for Coonts' books because of their dramatic, diverting action. Settin g the genre's conventions in a post-Castro context, Coonts delive rs the anticipated excitement. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From th e Publisher [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. -Publishers We ekly (starred review) --This text refers to an out of print or u navailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Coonts, mi litary-combat thrillermeister, pits his series character, Jake Gr afton, against a power-mad Cuban bureaucrat armed with Soviet ICB Ms aimed at the U.S. As Fidel Castro lies dying of cancer in Hava na, returning Cuban migrs, government sleazies, radicals, former revolutionaries, CIA smoothies, and even a local baseball hero al l find themselves ensnared in power plays. Just offshore, former Navy flyboy Jake Grafton, now a rear admiral with an aircraft car rier to call his own, and his sidekick, Toad Tarkington, supervis e a routine transfer of empty chemical-bacteriological warheads f rom the American base at Guantánamo Bay. Alas, scheming Cuban Sta te Security head Alejo Vargas and his sadistic sidekick Colonel S antana have cut deals with the notorious gangster El Gato as well as with some North Koreans, so that enough of those warheads wil l end up in a secret laboratory where mad American scientist Olaf Swenson is cooking up a lethal, quick-killing version of the pol io virus. Meanwhile, the Sedano family, with relatives at almost every strata of Cuban society, have their hands full: greedy fina nce minister Maximo Sedano wants to pocket Castro's $54 million S wiss bank account and dig up 47 tons of gold that Castro and Che Guevara supposedly hid when they overthrew Batista; his wife Merc edes, Castro's mistress, fears that Vargas is up to no good; brot her Hector, a somewhat fallen Jesuit priest, wants to preserve Cu ba from those who would exploit it; and youngest brother Ocho, th e baseball star, joins a group of boat people when he finds out h is girlfriend Dora is pregnant. But wait--there's more: ancient b ut still operational Soviet ICBMs, a crack Cuban MIG pilot and th e Mission Impossible high jinks of CIA operatives. Grafton himsel f is less action hero here than cool, seasoned commander who stoi cally accepts the President's impossible order to invade Cuba and stop the next missile crisis without antagonizing the native pop ulation. An overplotted slog of snarling Latinos and everything-y ou-never-needed-to-know about Cuban social history--until the sho oting starts and Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspens e writing yet. (325,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ®1999 , Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt . ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Cuba CHAPTER ON EGuantánamo Bay, on the southeast coast of the island of Cuba, is the prettiest spot on the planet, thought Rear Admiral Jake Graf ton, USN.He was leaning on the railing on top of the carrier Unit ed States's superstructure, her island, a place the sailors calle d Steel Beach. Here off-duty crew members gathered to soak up som e rays and do a few calisthenics. Jake Grafton was not normally a sun worshiper; at sea he rarely visited Steel Beach, preferring to arrange his day so that he could spend at least a half hour ru nning on the flight deck. Today he was dressed in gym shorts, T-s hirt, and tennis shoes, but he had yet to make it to the flight d eck.Grafton was a trim, fit fifty-three years old, a trifle over six feet tall, with short hair turning gray, gray eyes, and a nos e slightly too large for his face. On one temple was a scar, an o ld, faded white slash where a bullet had gouged him years ago.Peo ple who knew him regarded him as the epitome of a competent naval officer. Grafton always put his brain in gear before he opened h is mouth, never lost his cool, and he never lost sight of the goa ls he wanted to accomplish. In short, he was one fine naval offic er and his superiors knew it, which was why he was in charge of t his carrier group lying in Guantánamo Bay.The carrier and her esc orts had been running exercises in the Caribbean for the last wee k. Today the carrier was anchored in the mouth of the bay, with t wo of her larger consorts anchored nearby. To seaward three destr oyerssteamed back and forth, their radars probing the skies.A set of top-secret orders had brought the carrier group here.Jake Gra fton thought about those orders as he studied the two cargo ships lying against the pier through a set of navy binoculars. The shi ps were small, less than eight thousand tons each; larger ships d rew too much water to get against the pier in this harbor. They w ere Nuestra Señora de Colón and Astarte.The order bringing those ships here had not come from some windowless Pentagon cubbyhole; it was no memo drafted by an anonymous civil servant or faceless staff weenie. Oh, no. The order that had brought those ships to t his pier on the southern coast of Cuba had come from the White Ho use, the top of the food chain.Jake Grafton looked past the cargo ships at the warehouses and barracks and administration building s baking in the warm Cuban sun.A paradise, that was the word that described Cuba. A paradise inhabited by communists. And Guantána mo Bay was a lonely little American outpost adhering to the under side of this communist island, the asshole of Cuba some called it .Rear Admiral Grafton could see the cranes moving, the white cont ainers being swung down to the pier from Astarte, which had arriv ed several hours ago. Forklifts took the steel boxes to a hurrica ne-proof warehouse, where no doubt the harbormaster was stacking them three or four deep in neat, tidy military rows.The container s were packages designed to hold chemical and biological weapons, artillery shells and bombs. A trained crew was here to load the weapons stored inside the hurricane-proof warehouse into the cont ainers, which would then be loaded aboard the ship at the pier an d transported to the United States, where the warheads would be d estroyed.Loading the weapons into the containers and getting thec ontainers stowed aboard the second ship was going to take at leas t a week, probably longer. The first ship, Nuestra Señora de Coló n, Our L, St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2000, 3<

2018, ISBN: 9780752825236

Ohzora Publishing, 2018-02. Good. / ?? (/YLC DX Collection) / / 18.2 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm / 0.18 kg, Ohzora Publishing, 2018-02, 2.5, St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.… Meer...

Ohzora Publishing, 2018-02. Good. / ?? (/YLC DX Collection) / / 18.2 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm / 0.18 kg, Ohzora Publishing, 2018-02, 2.5, St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.13 inches. Paperback. 2000. 384 pages. <br>The hero of six New York Times bestsellers by Step hen Coonts, author ofFlight of the Intruder and Fortunes of War, returns as the United States and Cuba engage in a terrifying game of brinksmanship, a gamble that could break the last military ta boo and destroy both countries. In Cuba, an ailing Fidel Castro lies dying. Across the Straits of Florida, an anxious US awaits t he inevitable power struggle, determined to have a say in who con trols this strategically invaluable island. And the American Pres ident has an added reason for concern: an Arms Control Conference has just begun in Paris and, unbeknownst to either the American public or Cuba, the US has hidden secret weapons inside the Ameri can base on Cuba's Guantanemo Bay. But no secret remains one for long, and when one of the Cuban factions finds out about the weap ons, the excitement begins. Only Admiral Grafton, on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba, knows the impending danger. Only Grafton can save America from a disaster that would make the Bay of Pigs look like child's play. In Cuba, Stephen Coonts captures the ominous feel of a tropical powderkeg about to explode in a no vel filled with the action and drama for which he is famous. Edi torial Reviews Review Dramatic, diverting action...Coonts deliv ers. ?Booklist [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. ?Publisher s Weekly (starred review) Coonts manages to put together the var ious subplots into a satisfying climax that includes enough Tomah awk missiles, stealth bombers and staccato action to satisfy his most demanding fans. ?USA Today --This text refers to an out of p rint or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Ste phen Coonts is the author of The Disciple, The Assassin, and the Deep Black and Saucers series, among many other bestsellers. His first novel, the classic flying tale Flight of the Intruder, spen t more than six months at the top of The New York Times bestselle r list. A motion picture based on the book was released in 1991. His novels have been published around the world and translated in to more than a dozen languages. In 1986, he was honored by the U. S. Naval Institute with its Author of the Year Award. He is also the editor of four anthologies, Combat, On Glorious Wings, Victor y and War in the Air. Coonts served in the Navy from 1969 to 1977 , including two combat cruises on the USS Enterprise during the l ast years of the Vietnam War. --This text refers to an out of pri nt or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The future of Cuba is up for grabs in this crackerjack speculativ e thriller by the author of Flight of the Intruder and Fortunes o f War. Coonts regulars Rear Admiral Jake Grafton and staff operat ions officer Toad Tarkington are providing military cover for a s hipment of American chemical and biological weaponsAweapons that should have been destroyed long agoAout of Guant namo Bay, where they have been in storage. When the shipment goes missing, it's G rafton's job to find it and get those weapons back. But that's th e least of his worries, because Cuba is developing its own biolog ical weapons; as soon as they are ready, they will be loaded onto missiles already aimed at American cities. Meanwhile, an aged Ca stro is dying of cancer, and even if he lives long enough to name a successor, Alejo Vargas, head of the Cuban secret police, has his own plans for the future of the country. While there's little doubt that Grafton will save the day, Coonts's sharply drawn cha ractersAincluding dapper CIA operative and biological weapons exp ert William Henry Chance and his safe-cracking sidekick, Tommy Ca rmelliniAand a plethora of intersecting plot lines take what one character calls another Cuban missile crisis to a rousing action finale. But the surprise pleasure here is how clearly Coonts pain ts a picture of Cuba by focusing on the three Soldano brothersAHe ctor, a Jesuit priest who may be Castro's chosen successor; Ocho, the handsome ballplayer who has the chance to sail to Florida wi th the woman he got pregnant; and Maximo, the finance minister wh o is more interested in money than the revolution. This gripping and intelligent thriller is a standout for Coonts, taking the dea th of Castro as a starting point for an all-too-possible scenario of political turmoil and military brinkmanship. $325,000 ad/prom o; author tour. (Aug.) FYI: In one of this season's more interest ing coincidences, Coonts chooses for his epigraph the same poem b y Jos? Mart! as does Amy Ephron in her book White Rose, reviewed above. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This tex t refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review When a North Korean freighter carrying a carg o of biological weapons runs aground in international waters off Cuba--Rear Admiral Jake Grafton wants go aboard, taking just one other man with him. His new chief of staff, Capt. Pascal, is skep tical and suggests that he takes along a half-dozen well-armed ma rines. Jake's reply is patient and succinct: I don't know what's on that ship.... It just makes sense to have a point man explore the unknown before we risk very many lives. I am going to be the point man because I want to personally see what is there, and I m ake the rules. Understand? Had Capt. Pascal been one of the milli ons of readers of Coonts's six previous books about Grafton, he w ouldn't have raised the issue. Jake is a take-charge guy, the kin d of believable hero trusted by his military superiors (if occasi onally viewed as a loose cannon by politicians), and not even the possibility of an all-out war with Cuba is going to make him sta rt playing it safe. Fidel Castro is very close to death from can cer, and his chief aide plans to win the hearts of the Cuban popu lation and gain control of the government by using a 40-year-old secret weapon against an American city. Meanwhile, Adm. Grafton a nd his carrier fleet have been sent to Guantånamo Bay in Cuba to supervise the removal of some U.S. biological weapons there. Very soon, Grafton and other Coonts regulars are up to their helmets in action on the air, land, and sea. Along the way, we meet a lar ge cast of vivid supporting players: a Cuban family whose fate is closely linked to Castro's rise and fall and a CIA agent with th e perfect cover--a lawyer for giant tobacco companies who want to make cigarettes in Cuba. We also increase our knowledge of milit ary jargon: strangling the parrot means turning off a radar trans ponder. Cuba is an intriguing and surprisingly compassionate scen ario, in which superb military action alternates with high family drama and political in-fighting. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From B ooklist The popular Coonts mines the original Cuban missile crisi s for source material in his latest military-techno thriller. Wit hout preamble, he introduces the threat: a half-dozen ballistic m issiles Castro and the Russians secretly stashed in silos after t he crisis. Forty years on, Castro is at death's door, his associa tes jockeying for the succession. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is cov ering the extraction from Guantanamo Bay of a chemical/biological weapons stockpile, a task that facilitates Coonts folding in the specs on high-tech military iron (he was a navy pilot before tak ing up scrivening). He gets to operate the equipment through a sn afu: the navy loses track of the toxic warfare weapons. While it searches, a pistol-packing, safe-cracking CIA duo in Havana disco ver what the Cubans have been developing in their lab (creating a polio warhead for their missiles), and, with gunslinging panache , the CIA guys slickly egress hostile territory, carrying critica l targeting information. The winner of the succession struggle kn ows the Americans have found him out, thus setting the table for novel-ending battles around the missile sites, featuring appearan ces by seemingly every weapon in the U.S. armory short of the Bom b. Inevitably, the details about the V-22 Osprey and its kindred overshadow the characters flying the planes, but readers gun for Coonts' books because of their dramatic, diverting action. Settin g the genre's conventions in a post-Castro context, Coonts delive rs the anticipated excitement. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From th e Publisher [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. -Publishers We ekly (starred review) --This text refers to an out of print or u navailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Coonts, mi litary-combat thrillermeister, pits his series character, Jake Gr afton, against a power-mad Cuban bureaucrat armed with Soviet ICB Ms aimed at the U.S. As Fidel Castro lies dying of cancer in Hava na, returning Cuban migrs, government sleazies, radicals, former revolutionaries, CIA smoothies, and even a local baseball hero al l find themselves ensnared in power plays. Just offshore, former Navy flyboy Jake Grafton, now a rear admiral with an aircraft car rier to call his own, and his sidekick, Toad Tarkington, supervis e a routine transfer of empty chemical-bacteriological warheads f rom the American base at Guantánamo Bay. Alas, scheming Cuban Sta te Security head Alejo Vargas and his sadistic sidekick Colonel S antana have cut deals with the notorious gangster El Gato as well as with some North Koreans, so that enough of those warheads wil l end up in a secret laboratory where mad American scientist Olaf Swenson is cooking up a lethal, quick-killing version of the pol io virus. Meanwhile, the Sedano family, with relatives at almost every strata of Cuban society, have their hands full: greedy fina nce minister Maximo Sedano wants to pocket Castro's $54 million S wiss bank account and dig up 47 tons of gold that Castro and Che Guevara supposedly hid when they overthrew Batista; his wife Merc edes, Castro's mistress, fears that Vargas is up to no good; brot her Hector, a somewhat fallen Jesuit priest, wants to preserve Cu ba from those who would exploit it; and youngest brother Ocho, th e baseball star, joins a group of boat people when he finds out h is girlfriend Dora is pregnant. But wait--there's more: ancient b ut still operational Soviet ICBMs, a crack Cuban MIG pilot and th e Mission Impossible high jinks of CIA operatives. Grafton himsel f is less action hero here than cool, seasoned commander who stoi cally accepts the President's impossible order to invade Cuba and stop the next missile crisis without antagonizing the native pop ulation. An overplotted slog of snarling Latinos and everything-y ou-never-needed-to-know about Cuban social history--until the sho oting starts and Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspens e writing yet. (325,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ®1999 , Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt . ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Cuba CHAPTER ON EGuantánamo Bay, on the southeast coast of the island of Cuba, is the prettiest spot on the planet, thought Rear Admiral Jake Graf ton, USN.He was leaning on the railing on top of the carrier Unit ed States's superstructure, her island, a place the sailors calle d Steel Beach. Here off-duty crew members gathered to soak up som e rays and do a few calisthenics. Jake Grafton was not normally a sun worshiper; at sea he rarely visited Steel Beach, preferring to arrange his day so that he could spend at least a half hour ru nning on the flight deck. Today he was dressed in gym shorts, T-s hirt, and tennis shoes, but he had yet to make it to the flight d eck.Grafton was a trim, fit fifty-three years old, a trifle over six feet tall, with short hair turning gray, gray eyes, and a nos e slightly too large for his face. On one temple was a scar, an o ld, faded white slash where a bullet had gouged him years ago.Peo ple who knew him regarded him as the epitome of a competent naval officer. Grafton always put his brain in gear before he opened h is mouth, never lost his cool, and he never lost sight of the goa ls he wanted to accomplish. In short, he was one fine naval offic er and his superiors knew it, which was why he was in charge of t his carrier group lying in Guantánamo Bay.The carrier and her esc orts had been running exercises in the Caribbean for the last wee k. Today the carrier was anchored in the mouth of the bay, with t wo of her larger consorts anchored nearby. To seaward three destr oyerssteamed back and forth, their radars probing the skies.A set of top-secret orders had brought the carrier group here.Jake Gra fton thought about those orders as he studied the two cargo ships lying against the pier through a set of navy binoculars. The shi ps were small, less than eight thousand tons each; larger ships d rew too much water to get against the pier in this harbor. They w ere Nuestra Señora de Colón and Astarte.The order bringing those ships here had not come from some windowless Pentagon cubbyhole; it was no memo drafted by an anonymous civil servant or faceless staff weenie. Oh, no. The order that had brought those ships to t his pier on the southern coast of Cuba had come from the White Ho use, the top of the food chain.Jake Grafton looked past the cargo ships at the warehouses and barracks and administration building s baking in the warm Cuban sun.A paradise, that was the word that described Cuba. A paradise inhabited by communists. And Guantána mo Bay was a lonely little American outpost adhering to the under side of this communist island, the asshole of Cuba some called it .Rear Admiral Grafton could see the cranes moving, the white cont ainers being swung down to the pier from Astarte, which had arriv ed several hours ago. Forklifts took the steel boxes to a hurrica ne-proof warehouse, where no doubt the harbormaster was stacking them three or four deep in neat, tidy military rows.The container s were packages designed to hold chemical and biological weapons, artillery shells and bombs. A trained crew was here to load the weapons stored inside the hurricane-proof warehouse into the cont ainers, which would then be loaded aboard the ship at the pier an d transported to the United States, where the warheads would be d estroyed.Loading the weapons into the containers and getting thec ontainers stowed aboard the second ship was going to take at leas t a week, probably longer. The first ship, Nuestra Señora de Coló n, Our L, St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2000, 3<

2000, ISBN: 9780752825236

St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.13 inches. Paperback. 2000. 384 pages. <br>The hero of six New York Times bestsellers by Step hen Coonts, author ofFlight of t… Meer...

St. Martin's Paperbacks. Very Good. 6.06 x 1.3 x 9.13 inches. Paperback. 2000. 384 pages. <br>The hero of six New York Times bestsellers by Step hen Coonts, author ofFlight of the Intruder and Fortunes of War, returns as the United States and Cuba engage in a terrifying game of brinksmanship, a gamble that could break the last military ta boo and destroy both countries. In Cuba, an ailing Fidel Castro lies dying. Across the Straits of Florida, an anxious US awaits t he inevitable power struggle, determined to have a say in who con trols this strategically invaluable island. And the American Pres ident has an added reason for concern: an Arms Control Conference has just begun in Paris and, unbeknownst to either the American public or Cuba, the US has hidden secret weapons inside the Ameri can base on Cuba's Guantanemo Bay. But no secret remains one for long, and when one of the Cuban factions finds out about the weap ons, the excitement begins. Only Admiral Grafton, on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba, knows the impending danger. Only Grafton can save America from a disaster that would make the Bay of Pigs look like child's play. In Cuba, Stephen Coonts captures the ominous feel of a tropical powderkeg about to explode in a no vel filled with the action and drama for which he is famous. Edi torial Reviews Review Dramatic, diverting action...Coonts deliv ers. ?Booklist [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. ?Publisher s Weekly (starred review) Coonts manages to put together the var ious subplots into a satisfying climax that includes enough Tomah awk missiles, stealth bombers and staccato action to satisfy his most demanding fans. ?USA Today --This text refers to an out of p rint or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Ste phen Coonts is the author of The Disciple, The Assassin, and the Deep Black and Saucers series, among many other bestsellers. His first novel, the classic flying tale Flight of the Intruder, spen t more than six months at the top of The New York Times bestselle r list. A motion picture based on the book was released in 1991. His novels have been published around the world and translated in to more than a dozen languages. In 1986, he was honored by the U. S. Naval Institute with its Author of the Year Award. He is also the editor of four anthologies, Combat, On Glorious Wings, Victor y and War in the Air. Coonts served in the Navy from 1969 to 1977 , including two combat cruises on the USS Enterprise during the l ast years of the Vietnam War. --This text refers to an out of pri nt or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The future of Cuba is up for grabs in this crackerjack speculativ e thriller by the author of Flight of the Intruder and Fortunes o f War. Coonts regulars Rear Admiral Jake Grafton and staff operat ions officer Toad Tarkington are providing military cover for a s hipment of American chemical and biological weaponsAweapons that should have been destroyed long agoAout of Guant namo Bay, where they have been in storage. When the shipment goes missing, it's G rafton's job to find it and get those weapons back. But that's th e least of his worries, because Cuba is developing its own biolog ical weapons; as soon as they are ready, they will be loaded onto missiles already aimed at American cities. Meanwhile, an aged Ca stro is dying of cancer, and even if he lives long enough to name a successor, Alejo Vargas, head of the Cuban secret police, has his own plans for the future of the country. While there's little doubt that Grafton will save the day, Coonts's sharply drawn cha ractersAincluding dapper CIA operative and biological weapons exp ert William Henry Chance and his safe-cracking sidekick, Tommy Ca rmelliniAand a plethora of intersecting plot lines take what one character calls another Cuban missile crisis to a rousing action finale. But the surprise pleasure here is how clearly Coonts pain ts a picture of Cuba by focusing on the three Soldano brothersAHe ctor, a Jesuit priest who may be Castro's chosen successor; Ocho, the handsome ballplayer who has the chance to sail to Florida wi th the woman he got pregnant; and Maximo, the finance minister wh o is more interested in money than the revolution. This gripping and intelligent thriller is a standout for Coonts, taking the dea th of Castro as a starting point for an all-too-possible scenario of political turmoil and military brinkmanship. $325,000 ad/prom o; author tour. (Aug.) FYI: In one of this season's more interest ing coincidences, Coonts chooses for his epigraph the same poem b y Jos? Mart! as does Amy Ephron in her book White Rose, reviewed above. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This tex t refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review When a North Korean freighter carrying a carg o of biological weapons runs aground in international waters off Cuba--Rear Admiral Jake Grafton wants go aboard, taking just one other man with him. His new chief of staff, Capt. Pascal, is skep tical and suggests that he takes along a half-dozen well-armed ma rines. Jake's reply is patient and succinct: I don't know what's on that ship.... It just makes sense to have a point man explore the unknown before we risk very many lives. I am going to be the point man because I want to personally see what is there, and I m ake the rules. Understand? Had Capt. Pascal been one of the milli ons of readers of Coonts's six previous books about Grafton, he w ouldn't have raised the issue. Jake is a take-charge guy, the kin d of believable hero trusted by his military superiors (if occasi onally viewed as a loose cannon by politicians), and not even the possibility of an all-out war with Cuba is going to make him sta rt playing it safe. Fidel Castro is very close to death from can cer, and his chief aide plans to win the hearts of the Cuban popu lation and gain control of the government by using a 40-year-old secret weapon against an American city. Meanwhile, Adm. Grafton a nd his carrier fleet have been sent to Guantånamo Bay in Cuba to supervise the removal of some U.S. biological weapons there. Very soon, Grafton and other Coonts regulars are up to their helmets in action on the air, land, and sea. Along the way, we meet a lar ge cast of vivid supporting players: a Cuban family whose fate is closely linked to Castro's rise and fall and a CIA agent with th e perfect cover--a lawyer for giant tobacco companies who want to make cigarettes in Cuba. We also increase our knowledge of milit ary jargon: strangling the parrot means turning off a radar trans ponder. Cuba is an intriguing and surprisingly compassionate scen ario, in which superb military action alternates with high family drama and political in-fighting. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From B ooklist The popular Coonts mines the original Cuban missile crisi s for source material in his latest military-techno thriller. Wit hout preamble, he introduces the threat: a half-dozen ballistic m issiles Castro and the Russians secretly stashed in silos after t he crisis. Forty years on, Castro is at death's door, his associa tes jockeying for the succession. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is cov ering the extraction from Guantanamo Bay of a chemical/biological weapons stockpile, a task that facilitates Coonts folding in the specs on high-tech military iron (he was a navy pilot before tak ing up scrivening). He gets to operate the equipment through a sn afu: the navy loses track of the toxic warfare weapons. While it searches, a pistol-packing, safe-cracking CIA duo in Havana disco ver what the Cubans have been developing in their lab (creating a polio warhead for their missiles), and, with gunslinging panache , the CIA guys slickly egress hostile territory, carrying critica l targeting information. The winner of the succession struggle kn ows the Americans have found him out, thus setting the table for novel-ending battles around the missile sites, featuring appearan ces by seemingly every weapon in the U.S. armory short of the Bom b. Inevitably, the details about the V-22 Osprey and its kindred overshadow the characters flying the planes, but readers gun for Coonts' books because of their dramatic, diverting action. Settin g the genre's conventions in a post-Castro context, Coonts delive rs the anticipated excitement. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From th e Publisher [A] gripping and intelligent thriller. -Publishers We ekly (starred review) --This text refers to an out of print or u navailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Coonts, mi litary-combat thrillermeister, pits his series character, Jake Gr afton, against a power-mad Cuban bureaucrat armed with Soviet ICB Ms aimed at the U.S. As Fidel Castro lies dying of cancer in Hava na, returning Cuban migrs, government sleazies, radicals, former revolutionaries, CIA smoothies, and even a local baseball hero al l find themselves ensnared in power plays. Just offshore, former Navy flyboy Jake Grafton, now a rear admiral with an aircraft car rier to call his own, and his sidekick, Toad Tarkington, supervis e a routine transfer of empty chemical-bacteriological warheads f rom the American base at Guantánamo Bay. Alas, scheming Cuban Sta te Security head Alejo Vargas and his sadistic sidekick Colonel S antana have cut deals with the notorious gangster El Gato as well as with some North Koreans, so that enough of those warheads wil l end up in a secret laboratory where mad American scientist Olaf Swenson is cooking up a lethal, quick-killing version of the pol io virus. Meanwhile, the Sedano family, with relatives at almost every strata of Cuban society, have their hands full: greedy fina nce minister Maximo Sedano wants to pocket Castro's $54 million S wiss bank account and dig up 47 tons of gold that Castro and Che Guevara supposedly hid when they overthrew Batista; his wife Merc edes, Castro's mistress, fears that Vargas is up to no good; brot her Hector, a somewhat fallen Jesuit priest, wants to preserve Cu ba from those who would exploit it; and youngest brother Ocho, th e baseball star, joins a group of boat people when he finds out h is girlfriend Dora is pregnant. But wait--there's more: ancient b ut still operational Soviet ICBMs, a crack Cuban MIG pilot and th e Mission Impossible high jinks of CIA operatives. Grafton himsel f is less action hero here than cool, seasoned commander who stoi cally accepts the President's impossible order to invade Cuba and stop the next missile crisis without antagonizing the native pop ulation. An overplotted slog of snarling Latinos and everything-y ou-never-needed-to-know about Cuban social history--until the sho oting starts and Coonts delivers some of his best gung-ho suspens e writing yet. (325,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ®1999 , Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt . ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Cuba CHAPTER ON EGuantánamo Bay, on the southeast coast of the island of Cuba, is the prettiest spot on the planet, thought Rear Admiral Jake Graf ton, USN.He was leaning on the railing on top of the carrier Unit ed States's superstructure, her island, a place the sailors calle d Steel Beach. Here off-duty crew members gathered to soak up som e rays and do a few calisthenics. Jake Grafton was not normally a sun worshiper; at sea he rarely visited Steel Beach, preferring to arrange his day so that he could spend at least a half hour ru nning on the flight deck. Today he was dressed in gym shorts, T-s hirt, and tennis shoes, but he had yet to make it to the flight d eck.Grafton was a trim, fit fifty-three years old, a trifle over six feet tall, with short hair turning gray, gray eyes, and a nos e slightly too large for his face. On one temple was a scar, an o ld, faded white slash where a bullet had gouged him years ago.Peo ple who knew him regarded him as the epitome of a competent naval officer. Grafton always put his brain in gear before he opened h is mouth, never lost his cool, and he never lost sight of the goa ls he wanted to accomplish. In short, he was one fine naval offic er and his superiors knew it, which was why he was in charge of t his carrier group lying in Guantánamo Bay.The carrier and her esc orts had been running exercises in the Caribbean for the last wee k. Today the carrier was anchored in the mouth of the bay, with t wo of her larger consorts anchored nearby. To seaward three destr oyerssteamed back and forth, their radars probing the skies.A set of top-secret orders had brought the carrier group here.Jake Gra fton thought about those orders as he studied the two cargo ships lying against the pier through a set of navy binoculars. The shi ps were small, less than eight thousand tons each; larger ships d rew too much water to get against the pier in this harbor. They w ere Nuestra Señora de Colón and Astarte.The order bringing those ships here had not come from some windowless Pentagon cubbyhole; it was no memo drafted by an anonymous civil servant or faceless staff weenie. Oh, no. The order that had brought those ships to t his pier on the southern coast of Cuba had come from the White Ho use, the top of the food chain.Jake Grafton looked past the cargo ships at the warehouses and barracks and administration building s baking in the warm Cuban sun.A paradise, that was the word that described Cuba. A paradise inhabited by communists. And Guantána mo Bay was a lonely little American outpost adhering to the under side of this communist island, the asshole of Cuba some called it .Rear Admiral Grafton could see the cranes moving, the white cont ainers being swung down to the pier from Astarte, which had arriv ed several hours ago. Forklifts took the steel boxes to a hurrica ne-proof warehouse, where no doubt the harbormaster was stacking them three or four deep in neat, tidy military rows.The container s were packages designed to hold chemical and biological weapons, artillery shells and bombs. A trained crew was here to load the weapons stored inside the hurricane-proof warehouse into the cont ainers, which would then be loaded aboard the ship at the pier an d transported to the United States, where the warheads would be d estroyed.Loading the weapons into the containers and getting thec ontainers stowed aboard the second ship was going to take at leas t a week, probably longer. The first ship, Nuestra Señora de Coló n, Our L, St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2000, 3<