In the spring of 1968, twenty-six-year-old Vietnam vet and newspaper writer, Tom Williams returns to his hometown in rural Florida to visit his ailing grandmother and soon comes face to face with the horrors he’d fled the night he graduated from high school, the lynching of a childhood friend and the mysterious deaths of his parents. His search for justice brings him up against an assortment of organized crime figures and corrupt local officials who will stop him by any means necessary. Not knowing whom he can trust, Williams makes the mistake of turning to two of his oldest friends. Before long, he learns things about them he wishes he’d never known. In Unfinished Business, Ray Dan Parker weaves a story of violence and deception that is as timely today as in the turbulent sixties.
Fly Away: The Metamorphosis of Dina Savage With the help of cosmetic surgery, a brilliant career and a fake identity, Dina Savage has escaped her troubled past and crafted a new and exciting life for herself. But a hot date with a talented and handsome young artist reawakens tragic events from her childhood and leads her into a downward spiral of violence and revenge. A chance encounter with Dina and her date leaves retired newspaper writer Tom Williams wondering who she really is. From Atlanta he traces her roots back to a small hamlet in the Mississippi Delta and a twenty-year-old unsolved murder. As Dina’s fight for justice unfolds, she encounters an adversary more powerful than any she could have imagined. Now, she must match wits with a Russian cybercriminal and his sordid cast of associates. Sarah Radford has agreed to represent the man accused of assaulting Dina. Despite her inexperience, the young attorney begins taking apart the State’s case, only to discover that her client’s wealthy father has his own agenda. In the end, as he comes to understand Dina, it is Tom who must confront the consequences of his past mistakes. Ray Dan Parker’s breath-taking tale of exploitation and deceit explores the limits of personal ambition and the collateral damage brought on by our futile thirst for retribution. Readers of Parker’s previous works will hear echoes of Tom Williams’ search for meaning.
A young man must face the horrors of his past in Ray Dan Parker's enthralling debut novel, Unfinished Business. April of 1968 finds twenty-six-year-old Tom Williams returning to his small-town roots in Monrovia, Florida, after covering the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for his Tampa newspaper. But returning home brings with it memories he'd rather forget…memories of ten years before when, as a reckless teenager, Tom had a brief but passionate affair with a married woman. When she is found murdered, Tom's best friend, a black teenager named Jimmie Lee Johnson, quickly becomes the sole suspect in their racially charged town. Before Jimmie can be brought to trial, however, he is lynched by an enraged mob. The time has come for Tom to find out who really murdered his old lover—and to clear Jimmie's name once and for all. His search for the truth ultimately brings him face to face with dangers that lurk in the most unexpected of places.
When Tom and Colleen Williams accept an invitation from a close friend for an evening concert at Atlanta's Chastain Park, little do they suspect that they'll soon become witnesses in an alleged date rape case. What seems at first to be a blossoming romance between the handsome and promising young artist Liam Sanstrom and his date, the beautiful and mysterious Dina Savage, quickly turns ugly. Spiraling accusations lead to a campaign of character assassination and, ultimately, murder. This collision of power and wealth on the one hand and blind, vindictive ambition on the other leaves in its wake the ruined lives of dozens of people, including family and friends stretching from the suburbs of Atlanta to a small, dusty town in the Mississippi Delta. Drawn into this Greek tragedy by such powerful personalities, Tom fights to uncover the truth ... all the while hearing echoes of his own past.
In the spring of 1968, twenty-six-year-old Vietnam vet and newspaper writer, Tom Williams returns to his hometown in rural Florida to visit his ailing grandmother and soon comes face to face with the horrors he’d fled the night he graduated from high school, the lynching of a childhood friend and the mysterious deaths of his parents. His search for justice brings him up against an assortment of organized crime figures and corrupt local officials who will stop him by any means necessary. Not knowing whom he can trust, Williams makes the mistake of turning to two of his oldest friends. Before long, he learns things about them he wishes he’d never known. In Unfinished Business, Ray Dan Parker weaves a story of violence and deception that is as timely today as in the turbulent sixties.
Suburban homemaker Allison Embry believes she has gotten away with killing her young boyfriend… until she gets a call from his drug supplier with a proposition that threatens to destroy her family and the comfortable life she has built. Atlanta Police Lieutenant Paxton Davis, nearing retirement, must find the Midtown Murderer before he strikes again. For Davis, this case is all too reminiscent of the 1979-1980 child murders that marked the beginning of his career. Widowed newspaper writer Tom Williams plans to pursue his lifelong dream, to travel the US and chronicle his experiences. Then Tom receives word that an unknown assailant has killed a third lawyer nearby. As he ponders what else can go wrong, his daughter, a criminal defense attorney, calls to say she’s leaving her husband and moving home with her two sons. For Parker, storytelling is all about the characters. Here we meet an assortment of eccentric people, from the affluent to the destitute, the good, the bad, the unforgettable. Pronounced Ponce, Book Three in The Tom Williams Saga, takes us on a high-speed chase through some of Atlanta’s most colorful neighborhoods.
Fly Away: The Metamorphosis of Dina Savage With the help of cosmetic surgery, a brilliant career and a fake identity, Dina Savage has escaped her troubled past and crafted a new and exciting life for herself. But a hot date with a talented and handsome young artist reawakens tragic events from her childhood and leads her into a downward spiral of violence and revenge. A chance encounter with Dina and her date leaves retired newspaper writer Tom Williams wondering who she really is. From Atlanta he traces her roots back to a small hamlet in the Mississippi Delta and a twenty-year-old unsolved murder. As Dina’s fight for justice unfolds, she encounters an adversary more powerful than any she could have imagined. Now, she must match wits with a Russian cybercriminal and his sordid cast of associates. Sarah Radford has agreed to represent the man accused of assaulting Dina. Despite her inexperience, the young attorney begins taking apart the State’s case, only to discover that her client’s wealthy father has his own agenda. In the end, as he comes to understand Dina, it is Tom who must confront the consequences of his past mistakes. Ray Dan Parker’s breath-taking tale of exploitation and deceit explores the limits of personal ambition and the collateral damage brought on by our futile thirst for retribution. Readers of Parker’s previous works will hear echoes of Tom Williams’ search for meaning.
Bobby Thomson hit history's most famous home run during the bottom of the ninth in the final game of the 1951 National League playoffs. Sports historian Ray Robinson examines the circumstances surrounding this unforgettable moment, in a narrative packed with suspense, nostalgia, and insightful anecdotes about legendary players. Bob Costas contributes a brief Preface. 16 pages of photos.
When all-time pitching great Christy Mathewson died of tuberculosis in 1925 at the age of 45, it touched off a wave of national mourning that remains without precedent for an American athlete. The World Series was underway, and the game the day after Mathewson's death took on the trappings of a state funeral: officials slowly lowered the flag to half-mast, each ballplayer wore a black armband, and fans joined together in a chorus of "Nearer My God to Thee." Newspaper editorials recalled Mathewson's glorious career with the New York Giants, but also emphasized his unstinting good sportsmanship and voluntary service in World War I. The pitcher known to one and all as "Matty" or "Big Six" was as beloved for the strength of character he brought to the national pastime, as for his stunning 373 career victories. "I do not expect to see his like again," said his best friend and former manager, John McGraw. "But I do know that the example he set and the imprint he left on the sport that he loved and honored will remain long after I am gone." In Matty, Ray Robinson tells the story of a man who became America's first authentic sports hero. Until Mathewson, Robinson reveals, Americans loved baseball, but looked down on ballplayers and other athletes as hard-drinking, skirt-chasing ne'er-do-wells. Deprived of real-life role models, millions of readers followed the serialized exploits of Frank Merriwell, a fictional hero who excelled at sports from baseball to billiards and never drank, smoke, or swore. Robinson shows how an eager public greeted Mathewson as a flesh-and-blood version of Merriwell from his first year at Bucknell University, where he shone as star pitcher, premier field-goal kicker, and class president. Lured into the big leagues before he could graduate, the tall, handsome pitcher soon won over men, women and children with his sense of fair play and his arsenal of blazing fastballs, sweeping curves, and infamously deceptive fadeaway pitches. Robinson skillfully details the highlights of Mathewson's career, including his showdowns against the great batters of his day and his encounters with the young Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh and St. Louis teams. Here are the six remarkable days in October, 1905 when Mathewson became the only pitcher ever to hurl three straight shutouts in a World Series, and the afternoon at West Point when he won $50 in a bet that he could throw 20 of his best pitches to exactly the same spot. Robinson does not underplay Mathewson's occasional failings, but the most surprising aspect of this fascinating portrait is just how close America's first Hall of Fame pitcher came to living up to his image. Drawing on rare interviews, press clips, and long overlooked eyewitness accounts, Matty brings baseball's golden age to life--not only the great teams and the early superstars, but the long train trips between games, with cramped berths and no air conditioning; the small town ballplayers let loose amidst big city vice; and the two-bit gambling that eventually led to the infamous Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 Series (a scandal that might have escaped detection if the sportswriters in the press box with Mathewson had not been able to rely on his experienced eye for clues to how ballplayers might throw games). Offering rare insight into the making of an early twentieth century American hero, Matty is must reading for anyone who loves baseball.
Hoosier history overflows with bold visionaries, noble heroes, and lovable rogues. Boomhower brings together forty of the most notable figures from the nineteenth state, and provides short examinations of their lives and their contributions to the state, the nation, and history. -- adapted from back cover the Preface.
Hailed by critics as a long overdue portrait of Sugar Ray Robinson, a man who was as elusive out of the ring as he was magisterial in it, Pound for Pound is a lively and nuanced profile of an athlete who is arguably the best boxer the sport has ever known. So great were Robinson's skills, he was eulogized by Woody Allen, compared to Joe Louis, and praised by Muhammad Ali, who called him "the king, the master, my idol." But the same discipline that Robinson brought to the sport eluded him at home, leading him to emotionally and physically abuse his family -- particularly his wife, the gorgeous dancer Edna Mae, whose entrepreneurial skills helped Robinson build an empire to which Harlemites were inexorably drawn. Exposing Robinson's flaws as well as putting his career in the context of his life and times, renowned journalist and bestselling author Herb Boyd, with Ray Robinson II, tells for the first time the full story of a complex man and sport-altering athlete.
You are on CNN, live. The host leans across to you and asks, What s the major difference between Christianity and the other major religions? They are basically all the same, aren t they? Millions are awaiting your reply. Do you know how you would answer? Most of us are not as prepared as we should be for this all-important task. Discover what almost all religions have in common: By trying to earn their way to Heaven, their followers are robed in works-righteousness. Learn how to gently remove that robe, so those seeking eternal salvation can be clothed in the righteousness that comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. Each religion is discussed according to: It s basic beliefs Testimonies of its followers who turned to Christ Sample witnessing conversation.
In the three decades between 1946 and 1976, the Central Flying School which was based at Little Rissington, produced over 6000 fledgling Qualified Flying Instructors and continually endeavoured to monitor and improve the wider Royal Air Force's standards of flying, based on its sound, proven instructional methods and a wealth of tradition extending back to Upavon in 1912. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, the station's role took on a new dimension with the arrival of the Central Flying School (CFS) from RAF Upavon in the following year. The main function of CFS was to fulfil RAF requirements and assist some Commonwealth air force requirements for flying instructors. RAF Little Rissington became CFS's important focal base for the next thirty years. The book covers the 1946 to 1976 period and has been drawn from from the records at the National Archives, the RAF Museum, the Central Flying School Archive, and from published sources. Anecdotes and recollections from over 100 service and civilian personnel, ranging from Air Marshals to AC2s, who were once based at Little Rissington bring these unfolding years to life.
Zounds! The questions abound for Batman! All will be revealed in BATMAN ’66, VOL. 5—the adventure series inspired by the classic Batman television series. WHO is to blame for raising Solomon Grundy from a Gotham cemetery, or forming a mega-malleable monstrosity like Clayface? WHAT latest emerald enchantment allows Marsha, Queen of Diamonds, to control the minds of men—not to mention Robin, the Boy Wonder? WHERE will the Dynamic Duo find Poison Ivy as she plants her sinister seeds of sedition? Hopefully, not inside the maw of her topiary terror, the Jupiter Flytrap! WHEN will the Joker-inspired villainess known as the Harlequin unleash her master plan of mayhem on Gotham? Could it happen before temp employee Barbara Gordon assists the city’s top ad agency in improving the image of its newest clients, including the Penguin?! HOW will Batman, Robin, and Batgirl wrestle with the backbreaking brutality of the lethal luchador Bane, or his managerial prince of puzzles, the Riddler? WHY does one chemical concoction grip the Cowled Crime-fighters with fear for the Scarecrow, while another transforms a two-bit enforcer into the jaw-snapping Killer Croc? Collecting BATMAN ’66 #23-30, these Bat-tastic battles of heroism are inscribed by JEFF PARKER, RAY FAWKES, GABE SORIA, LEE ALLRED and artistically articulated by BRENT SCHOONOVER, GIANCARLO CARACUZZO, JON BOGDANOVE, JESSE HAMM, LUKAS KETNER, TY TEMPLETON, SCOTT KOWALCHUK, DEAN HASPIEL and MICHAEL ALLRED!
Emphasizing budget travel and ecotourism, "Hidden Hawaii" shares the best buys and best bets in accommodations and sightseeing. This tenth edition is fully updated and includes many new "hidden" finds geared toward adventure tourism. 8-pages of color phtoos.
A collection of nearly 300 of the dumbest stories from the four bestselling "America's Dumbest Criminals" books, along with 40 all-new stories in one handy oversized edition. Illustrations.
Reviewing over 250 places to stay, from 24 world-class resorts to 19 bed-and-breakfasts and 16 surfer shacks, this 13th edition describes over 186 beaches for swimming, snorkeling, surfing, and hiking. "The perfect choice for the visitor who wants an active vacation in the islands."--"Travel and Leisure." Full-color photos. 45 maps.
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