DescriptionThe Magician is the now famous story of two 16-year-old antagonists locked in the crucible of their high school which neither can escape. Ed Japhet gives a skillful performance of magic at the school prom. After the prom, Ed and his girlfriend are beset by Urek, the leader of a school gang that extracts extortion money by "renting" kids their own lockers. Ed is the only student who refuses to pay extortion money. Urek's fury at Japhet's defiance results in an attempted murder, a criminal trial, and death, with a shocker of an ending. The book, selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club, sold over a million copies, was widely taught in American schools, and has been published all over the world, in Britain, France, Germany, and as far away as Russia and Japan.
DescriptionEvan Delaney has come to terms with the hit-and-run crash that left her boyfriend, Jesse Blackburn, in a wheelchair and killed his best friend. But when she hears that the driver, Franklin Brand, is back in Santa Barbara, she is determined to help Jesse bring him to book for his crime. Brand was a golden boy at Mako Technologies, a heavyweight cyber-security firm. That's where Evan starts looking, and as she digs deeper, she finds evidence of theft and extortion. Then witnesses to the hit-and-run start dying. It seems that powerful interests are determined to stop Jesse and Evan, once and for all.
DescriptionVinnie Callabrese toils in the mean world of a Mafia hood, violently enforcing his loan-shark boss's debt collections, but he lives in the world of the movies, one where he can tie a bow tie like Cary Grant and speak with the voice of Tyrone Power. Vinnie is smart, too, and he finds a way to turn his dream world into reality. Arriving on the West Coast with a new identity and some ill-gotten gains, Vinnie discovers that his sociopathic nature is just the ticket for handling the intrigues of Tinseltown. He employs his old techniques of deceit, coercion, sexual conquest, even murder, to carve out a place at the top of the film industry. But Vinnie's old neighborhood friends have excellent memories and a long reach, and soon his fast-track career is facing derailment, or even worse, a new driver at the controls.
DescriptionIt's not Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband Wayne's fault that they were in the real estate office when a pair of thugs walked in with extortion on their minds. But as far as aging Ojibway Indian hitman Armand Degas is concerned, the Colsons are going to have to pay dearly for seeing too much, and for the damage Wayne inflicted on Armand and his sicko partner Richie Nix with a tire iron. The cops here in middle-of-nowhere Michigan can't help Carmen and Wayne out, and the best the Feds can offer is the Witness Protection Program. So ultimately it's going to have to come down to one wife, one husband, two killers, and one lethal shot.
DescriptionThis is the inside story of how America turned from a respected republic into a feared empire. "Economic hit men, " John Perkins writes, "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include…
