New Releases by Ross Thomas

I wonder what the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at Jacob''s Well was like. What were the circumstances that led to her being there, drawing water in the heat of the day? The New Testament does not give us much background on the people involved in some of the familiar stories. This book brings those characters to life by letting the reader imagine what their life might have been like. Consider Joseph as a man wondering how he got himself into a situation where he and his pregnant wife were traveling to Bethlehem. What happened at the birth of Jesus from the perspective of another guest in the Inn? Did the jailer in Philippi have a son? If he did, how might he have viewed the events that happened while Paul was a prisoner? A Centurion had a servant who was ill. What was the relationship between the Centurion and the servant? How did the Centurion happen to get sent to Galilee? These stories take New Testament stories as a starting place and consider a different possibility. They will challenge you to think again about the people who might have met Jesus in person.

Der bekannte Gewerkschaftsboss Arch Mix ist spurlos verschwunden. Als Ermittlungen von FBI und CIA scheinbar erfolglos bleibe, wird der frühere Wahlkampfberater Harvey Longmire von einer neugegründeten Organisation, die sich der Aufdeckung von Verschwörungen verschrieben hat, hinzugezogen. Auf seinen Nachforschungen im Washington kurz nach der Watergate-Affäre gerät er in ein raffiniert gesponnenes Netz politischer Intrigen und Verschwörungen, das sich nicht nur auf Gewerkschaften, sondern auch auf die kommenden Wahlen auszuwirken droht. Doch wer steckt dahinter? Eine Reihe von Morden macht Harveys Ermittlungen nicht einfacher ...

Edd Partain, ein unehrenhaft aus der US-Army entlassener Exmajor, erhält einen Auftrag von Millicent Altford, einer einschlägig bekannten Geldwäscherin, der 1,2 Millionen Dollar auf rätselhafte Weise abhanden gekommen sind. Edd, wieder mal abgebrannt, macht sich auf die Suche, doch hat er kaum Zeit, sich um die Millionen zu kümmern, eine Reihe von Morden geschieht, und Edd Prtain trifft auf alte Bekannte aus finsteren Zeiten, die ihn schon damals gern aus den Weg geräumt hätten.

Es ist ein geruhsames Leben, das der Amerikaner Mac McCorkle als Barbesitzer in Bonn führt - bis eines Tages ein Mann namens Maas auftaucht, dessen Gesprächspartner in Mac''s Place niedergeschossen wird. Mit den Schüssen beginnt für Mac und seinen Partner Mike Padillo, der gelegentlich zu ''kleinen Agentenjobs'' abkommandiert wird, eine Geheimmission. McCorkle beteiligt sich an der ''blinden'' Reise seines Freundes und muß bald nach Berlin, um dort Kopf und Kragen bei einer überaus undurchsichtigen Rettungs- und Tauschaktion zu riskieren. ''Die Kneipe, die die Protagonisten McCorkle und sein Partner Padillo in Bonn führen, heißt ›Mac''s Place‹. Mac''s Place ist ein neuer Ort auf der Landkarte der Kriminalliteratur. Selbst ein Marlowe würde hier zwar nicht als Trinker, aber als puritanisch räsonierendes Überbleibsel aus ferner Zeit auffallen. Mac ist definitiv eine Figur unserer Zeit: zu abgebrüht für jede Parole, zu zynisch, um nicht sein Schäfchen ins Trockene zu bringen. Die Story ist raffiniert gestrickt, die Atmosphäre stimmt haarklein, die Schreibe ist exzellent - ein absoluter Hit der Thriller-Szene.'' Jörg Fauser

Bearbeitete Neuausgabe. Der dicke Chinese Artie Wu, sein Geschäftspartner Quincy Durant, der Hochstapler "Otherguy" Overby, der alternde Terrorismusexperte Booth Stalling und die mit allen Wassern gewaschene Ex-Agentin Georgia Blue, das sind die Protagonisten des dritten und letzten Artie-Wu-und-Quincy-Durant-Falls. "Die Wudu, Ltd. ist eine straff geführte Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, die für andere das tut, was sie selbst für sich nicht tun können", sagt Artie Wu, Chef der exklusiven Agentur Wudu, Ltd. Mit anderen Worten, sie lösen Fälle für einen Haufen Kohle - Fälle wie den Mord an dem Hollywood-Produzenten Billy Rice. Am Neujahrsmorgen 1991 wird die Film-Diva Ione Gamble volltrunken und mit abgefeuerter Tatwaffe in der Hand neben der Leiche ihres millionenschweren Ex-Verlobten aufgefunden. Vor dem Hintergrund des ersten Irakkriegs beginnt das Spezialistenteam Wudu, Ltd. mit seinen Ermittlungen.

Artie Wu und Quincy Durant, zwei ehemalige Waisenkinder, die ihre Lektion gelernt haben, leben am Strand von Malibu, Kalifornien. Als Artie Wu beim Joggen über einen toten Pelikan stolpert, haben die beiden kurz darauf den Millionär Randall Piers und seine nymphomane Frau im Haus. Die Ermittler verstricken sich bald in einem Netz aus offenen Rechnungen und alten Versprechen, geknüpft von den schmutzigen Fingern der Mafia und CIA. Durchgesehene Neuausgabe der 1984 erschienenen deutschen Erstausgabe.

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel At the height of the Cold War, two Americans are runnng a bar in the West German capital, called Mac''s place. One of the pair, Michael Padillo, isn''t around a lot; he keeps disappearing on "business trips." McCorkle, his partner, wisely doesn''t ask questions; he knows Padillo has a second job -- he''s a (reluctant) US agent. But McCorkle is ready to answer a call for help from Padillo, and he joins his friend in a blind journey with no inkling of what they will encounter at the turn of each dark and dangerous corner.

"This report details the findings of the 2010 survey for seagrass habitat in and around the mouth of the Skardon River. The survey included assessment of approximately 30 sq. km of intertidal and shallow subtidal substrate. One seagrass species was identified that formed only a small community within the survey area. Other small seagrasss meadows are known from previous surveys to exist further upstream within the Skardon River system. These meadows are all likey to be regionally important and also highly variable beween both years and seasons. No significant algae of benthic macro-invertebrate communities were identified in the 2010 survy area. --p.1.

This book is a brief, chronological history of when and by whom, non-biblical ideas entered the Church and how those false ideas became official doctrines in what would emerge over the centuries as the Roman Catholic Church. These doctrines crystallized over the gradual abandonment of the exclusive authority of the Bible in the life of the Church by the establishment of doctrines based on human tradition. There is much pressure today by the Roman Catholic Church on Protestant Evangelicals of all persuasions, to set aside doctrinal differences and "evangelize together" so that the world will see a "united" Church. Yet the Bible clearly teaches that the Church of Jesus Christ is to be the pillar and foundation of the truth in the midst of society (1 Timothy 3:15). How can we abandon the truth for the sake of "unity" and think that we can actually accomplish God''s will for His Church. Does the truth really matter? Ross Thomas Hindman served the Lord as a missionary in France from 1984 to 2006. In the early years he was involved in helping French Christians establish new churches and then later became the director of the Bethany Bible School in the heart of France. He also helped Brazilian missionaries begin a Bethany Bible School in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. He continues his ministry of teaching in the French-speaking world as well as in the United States while continuing his missionary activities with Bethany International in helping develop mission schools in the least-reached nations. He received the Bachelor of Arts in Bible (Cum Laude) from Asbury College in 1980 and the Master of Divinity in Evangelism and Missions from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky in 1983. Married with three children and six grandchildren, he currently lives with his wife Ellen in Omaha, Nebraska.

Ah, Treachery!, the last novel Thomas wrote before his death, tells the story of one Captain Edd "Twodees" Partain, drummed out of the Army and hounded by rumors of his involvement in a secret operation in El Salvador. Twodees gets hired on to help a fundraiser for the "Little Rock folks" recover funds that were stolen from an illicit stash used to smooth over problems and pay off hush money. Meanwhile, Partain is involved in a storefront operation called VOMIT (Victims of Military Intelligence Treachery) trying to defend former intelligence operatives such as Partain from those who are trying to cover up the past permanently.

This report details findings of the 2006 annual seagrass monitoring survey for Port Curtis and Rodds Bay. The program was developed from a baseline survey conducted in 2002 and from the recommendations of the Port Curtis Integrated Monitoring Program (PCIMP) review - p. 1.

This manuscript was written from the growing pains of friends, the hurts of my heart, the tears from my eyes and the deliverance from scared and damaged emotions. It was written to be shared with you: mother, daughter, aunt, sister, niece, grandmother, godmother and friend, every woman who has ever experienced re-shaping of an emotion. It was written to encourage you and to remind you that, even that very fragile or life-threatening experience can be used to stretch you into your destiny; into......His perfect plan for your life.

"Anyone reading a Ross Thomas thriller for the first time is in imminent danger of addiction: One taste is never enough." - Los Angeles Times In Twilight at Mac''s Place, the quiet death of an aged spy triggers a desperate race to control his memoirs, which threaten to reveal Cold War secrets many would prefer stayed secrets. When the spy''s estranged son receives the then dizzying sum of $100,000 for all rights to the work, he is properly dizzied. He is also smart enough to seek the help of veteran Cold Warriors McCorkle and Padillo, owners of a D.C. bar called Mac''s Place that is both a capital landmark and a nest of intrigue.

The Fourth Durango is not your ordinary Durango. It''s not in Spain, or Mexico, and it''s not a ski town in the Colorado Rockies, although Durangos do exist in all of those places. This Durango has an industry, albeit a rather odd one-it is a hideout business, a place where people pay to find sanctuary from former friends and associates who are either trying to kill them, or have them killed. Into this Durango comes a former chief justice of a state supreme court, followed by son-in-law Kelly Vines to act as his emissary to the beautiful and savvy mayor. Following them come a false priest, and a run of murders. It takes a Ross Thomas to stir these characters into a witty and ingenious mix readers will not be able to- -and certainly would not want to--resist.

"Hain''t we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain''t that a big enough majority in any town?" -- Mark Twain When Lucifer Dye is released from three months in a Hong Kong prison, debriefed, handed a false passport, a new wardrobe and a $20,000 check, his haughty control makes it clear that Dye''s career with his country has been permanently terminated. But a good agent is always in demand, and just a few hours later Dye is being interviewed for a highly ingenious position. Victor Orcutt, although a not very good imitation of a British pre-war gent, has creative talents of his own. He has his sights a small southern city, with the ordinary run-of-the-mill corruption one would expect in such a place. The canny Orcott knows there''s no profit in that. His creed is "To get better, it must be much worse." He and his two associates have looked up Dye''s history, and he now offers the ex-spy a mission: for two and a half times the government''s bounty, Dye is to thoroughly corrupt the town. And the sly Dye takes the offer.

A long-distance call from a Texas city on his birthday gives Benjamin Dill the news that his sister--it''s her birthday, too, they were born exactly ten years apart--has died in a car bomb explosion. It''s the chief of police calling--Felicity Dill worked for him; she was a homicide detective. Dill is there that night, the beginning of his dogged search for her killer. What he finds is no surprise to him, because Benjamin DIll is never surprised at what awful things people will do--but it''s a real surprise to the reader.

Would you be wary if someone gave you the assignment of delivering five million dollars to a Philippine terrorist--never mind from whom or why? Booth Stallings, a terrorism expert just fired from his job at a bashful organization that never admitted its mount in the Washington merry-go-round, is wary. So wary that he cuts in con man "Otherguy" Overby, who in turn involves Artie Wu, pretender to the throne of China, and his partner, Quincy Durant. Obviously, good patriots don''t want to hand over all that money to bad guys. Better they keep it for themselves. Which inevitably raises the question: Who among them will end up with the money?

""It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell, and met the man with six greyhounds."""- "from "Chinaman''s Chance" Thus begins what may be the most popular of Ross Thomas''s unique stories. The combination of Wu, pretender to the Imperial throne of China, and Quincy Durant, who has his own colorful past, makes for a heady experience. After starting with the deceased pelican on a California beach, the plot mixes in the disappearance of a large sum of money that should have been buried in Vietnam, and the search for the missing member of a trio of singing sisters from the Ozarks. Only Thomas could have stirred this concoction with the style, humor, and suspense that captures the reader at the very beginning and doesn''t let go until the last word.

In this stinging critique of our legal system, Thomas Ross reveals how in making and justifying their opinions, judges rely to a startling degree on personal constructs that often perpetuate the deep biases in society. While these terrible societal prejudices have become the basic building blocks of our law, Ross suggests that they don''t have to be. Instead, he posits that knowledge of the problem offers a first step toward imagining a different and better future.