The Human Pool

Fifteen years earlier, Katie was in the CIA. She loved her job (to say nothing of her boss, the mysterious Benton Mattingly). Yet just as she was sensing she was in line for a promotion, she was fired -- escorted off the premises by two extremely hulking security types. Why? No one would tell her: when you're expelled from the Agency, warm friends immediately become icy ex-colleagues who won't risk their security clearances by talking to you.

Until that day, Katie was where she wanted to be. Coming from a family of Manhattan superachievers, she too had a job she not only adored but a job that made her, in the family tradition, a Someone. Fifteen years later, Katie is still stuck on her firing. Was she set up? Or did she make some terrible mistake that cost lives? She believes that if she could discover why they threw her out, she might be at peace.

On the day she's rushing to get her son off to summer camp, Katie gets a surprise call from former Agency colleague Lisa Golding. "A matter of national importance," says Lisa, who promises to reveal the truth about the firing -- if Katie will help her. Lisa was never very good at truth-telling, though she swears she's changed her ways. Katie agrees to speak with her, but before she can, Lisa vanishes.

Maturity and common sense should keep Katie in the bright, normal world of her present life, away from the dark intrigues of the past. But she needs to know. As she takes just a few steps to find out, one ex-spy who might have the answers dies under suspicious circumstances. Another former agent is murdered. Could it be there's a list? If so, is Katie now on it? And who will be the next to go?

From the outside the Kesslers appear to have it all: Dr. Ted Kessler is a decorated veteran who now runs the lab at a large medical center. He and his wife, Joyce, live with their daughter, Jessi, in a beautiful house in the estate section of an Ohio city in the 1970s. Ted is widely respected as a clinician, researcher, manager, and businessman. But when he resolves to mentor an ambitious working-class student, this idyllic little world is threatened.

Syd Redding, the gruff, streetwise narrator of The Narcissist's Daughter, has no plan in mind for the Kesslers. He's a bored pre-med student with few prospects, a failure for a stepfather, and a sister who seems to be following his example. Soon after he meets Kessler's wife and daughter, he finds himself ensnared in the secret machinations of this magnetic family on the brink of unraveling.

The Narcissist's Daughter is the compulsively readable and suspenseful story of a simple affair that blossoms into obsession, exploitation, and finally, a passion for revenge that threatens to ruin the lives of everyone involved.

“How can it be that in 2008, a checked bag on an airline flight is still exponentially safer than a patient in an American hospital?  Simply put, one industry has learned the realities of what it takes to make a human system safe, and the other has not. 

So what does it take to dramatically improve patient safety and service quality?  It takes a host of new and different (and sometimes radical) methods centered on supporting the people on the front lines – those who actually take care of the patient.  It takes a hospital like the one in this story: St. Michael’s.

St. Michael’s itself is fictional, but it is specifically designed to show how the ideal healthcare environment would look and feel.  Are all the methods and ideas and organizational characteristics in use at St. Michael’s largely in use in real institutions?  Not yet, though many are in the process of being adopted, and some are already producing wonderful results.  I encourage you to visit our website WhyHospitalsShouldFly.com, for additional information and insight. . 

But the bottom line is this: What St. Michael’s represents is an achievable paradigm, and if we can’t imagine what constitutes truly safe and collegial hospitals, we can’t build them.”

In a sunlit, secret valley in the green mountains of central Italy, two people meet away from the horrors and clamour of battle. David Hopkins, a young fisherman from west Wales and Kate Medhurst, from a genteel town in the Thames Valley, embark upon an idyllic love affair away from the conflict that surrounds them. However, they cannot escape the war forever, and when they are targeted by a single enemy aeroplane their dreams are destroyed.

Weeks later, Hopkins wakes up in a Russian hospital in Vienna where he's slowly recovering from serious wounds - with no recollection of the past. Eventually, transferred to an American hospital and then repatriated to Britain, Hopkins reluctantly returns to Wales.

And there, alone and haunted by the months he cannot remember, Hopkins embarks upon a journey of rediscovery...

Carolyn knew everything about Veronica Campbell. She knew about the case of murder and retribution that haunted her life and career. About her stormy relationship with her husband Drew. About the emotional darkness that was overwhelming Veronica's fragile seventeen-year-old daughter Jude. But seeing her friend laid out on a cold hard slab of steel in a morgue, and hearing the initial judgments of the investigators, Carolyn also knows this: there's no way Veronica would have ever taken her own life. And when Carolyn receives a note threatening her away from the case, she knows a killer is at large.

Carolyn must separate lies from truths in a world of complex relationships and battered psyches. As a hidden side of Veronica's life emerges, including the stunning possibility that Veronica had taken a lover, Carolyn becomes increasingly involved with Veronica's daughter, who claims her father has been abusing her for years. Trusting a person she doesn't truly know, putting her own upcoming marriage with wealthy, charming Marcus Wright in jeopardy, Carolyn investigates the brutal murder of another young woman. With danger and deceit swirling all around her, Carolyn is determined to lure her prime suspect out of the shadows. But all the while a killer is coming straight after her...

It's been ten years since Carolyn Sullivan helped put vicious murderer and serial rapist Carl Holden behind bars. Forensic evidence had him nailed dead to rights. But in a stunning turn of events, Holden is once again a free man--and Carolyn is his probation officer.

To the state, Holden has served his time. To Carolyn, he represents a heinous miscarriage of justice. Then a body is found in the same location where Holden buried his first victim. As the dead count quickly mounts, everything Carolyn ever trusted as a professional is put to the test. With time running out, only the biggest gamble of her life can stop a ruthless killer--or bring alive her worst nightmare.

"A great page-turner. . .a whirlwind finish." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A terrific protagonist, fabulous forensic support, and an incredible climax. . .A superb thriller." --Midwest Book Review

"A detailed insider's look behind the badge." --Daily News

Veteran pilot Clark Maxwell thought his fire bombing days were well behind him. But when Jerry Stein, Maxwell's friend and airtanker fleet-owner, calls at the height of the fire season to beg him to reenter the war, he doesn't hesitate. A pair of ferocious forest fires is raging out of control, threatening to destroy Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and incinerate thousands of area homes. As the wildfires spread, whipped by massive winds, and the federal forces arrayed against the fires reach their limits, anxiety grows in the local population. A paranoia plagues the fire bombers and smoke jumpers as well, after a mysterious string of violent airborne accidents among the airtanker fleet claims the lives of some of the most fearless and experienced veterans.

Maxwell has long argued that the airtankers -- old aircraft used by pilots to bomb the fires with fire retardant slurry -- are faulty museum pieces that should have been grounded years ago. Now some of the fleet seem to be falling apart in midair. In the middle of the area's worst wildfire season in history, Maxwell is convinced that a sinister cover-up is behind the rash of horrific air disasters. Were the planes' inspection papers forged? Is someone capitalizing on these crashes? As he races to unravel a very real mystery and prevent a natural disaster of massive proportions, Maxwell's probe reaches the upper levels of the very government agencies charged with mount-ing the aerial fire fighting effort -- a move that for wholly unexpected reasons just may cost him his life...and the life of Karen Jones, the married smoke jumper with whom he seems to have fallen in love.