F.B.I. Agents Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo are burned out from too many cases so they schedule a two week vacation. Jack plans to hang out with his son, followed by some fishing in Baja. Then Jack gets a phone call from his snitch and on-again-off-again girlfriend, the sexy and unpredictable car thief, Michelle Wu. Michelle's sister has been kidnapped. Terrified that she will be killed, Michelle begs Jack to come to Santa Fe at once.Jack owes Michelle big time--she once saved his life. Michelle is pretty sure a biker named Lucky Avila had something to do with Jennifer’s disappearance. She also admits she did business with Lucky, who might be angry at her. Jack goes out to see Lucky, hoping for a simple end to the case. He should have known better. Anything in which Michelle Wu is involved is bound to be complex, dark, and wild. Soon Jack is up to his neck with bikers, Mexican gangs, and a giant pet wild Razorback hog named Ole Big, who may offer a major clue to...

Anesthesiologist Dr. Cross' job is to alleviate pain but someone is now accusing him of murder.

Two people are inextricably bound together by something neither of them can understand or explain. At times it seems elemental and destructive but at others it appears to be a cause for hope and fulfilment. Though their lives follow very different paths they can never fully break free from each other, the consequences of which prove devastating for them both. The Manner of The Mourning is a novel about fear and disappointment, fate and longing and ultimately, the nature of what we call love. Biographical Note: Robert Ward was born in Liverpool and read Philosophy at the University of Sussex.

A fictional memoir about the writer's grandmother, a Civil Rights activist in Baltimore.

Smart, tough Los Angeles FBI agents Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo meet their match in a diamond smuggler, Steinbach, who seems to have almost superhuman powers. Arrested during a clever sting operation, Steinbach tells the team of agents he will kill them, and sure enough, one by one, they start to die. Worse, Jack can’t begin to pin it on Steinbach, who is, after all, in prison. Soon, however, Steinbach makes a deal with Homeland Security and is freed with total immunity.Jack is pretty sure that he and Oscar could be next. But, as it turns out, Steinbach is not the only menace. Two of the agents who were killed turn out to be dirty. Jack and Oscar tour the seamy side of L.A. in hopes of finding clues, but they get way more than they bargained for.(20090615)From Publishers WeeklyIn Ward's overblown crime novel, two Los Angeles FBI agents, Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo, are thrilled when their successful sting brings down South African jewel smuggler Karl Steinbach. They laugh off Steinbach's promise that everyone involved will soon die, but when a fellow agent's brakes fail and another is pushed in front of an oncoming train, Harper and Hidalgo fear they might be next. As the pair investigate their slain comrades' lives, they discover that what looked like a case of retribution is actually tied to a web of deceit that stretches to the highest echelons of the FBI. Ward (Four Kinds of Rain) mixes in a melodramatic subplot involving Harper's young son, Kevin, whose attempts at teenage rebellion coincidentally put him in the center of his father's investigation. A former writer for Miami Vice, Ward weighs down what could have been a slick tale of greed and corruption with hollow heroes and stereotypical villains. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistLos Angeles FBI agents Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo breathe sighs of relief after the arrest of South African jewel smuggler Karl Steinbach in a complex sting. Alas, their satisfaction is short-lived. Mere moments after Steinbach is locked up, he strikes a deal with Homeland Security, acquiring freedom—and total immunity—in exchange for information about Muslim terrorists. Liberation is not enough for the vengeful Steinbach, who threatens to kill Harper, Hidalgo, and anyone else who betrayed him. Soon two fellow agents are dead—one in a harrowing car crash, the other thrown in the path of an oncoming train. (But were they just innocent victims or fallen players in Steinbach’s scheme?) Agent Harper wrangles with the demons of past cases as he and Hidalgo furiously pursue clues, certain that one of them is next on Steinbach’s list. In this cinematic (if occasionally over-the-top) thriller, veteran TV writer and producer Ward (Four Kinds of Rain, 2006) serves up a story line crackling with action and a cool cast of thugs, traitors, killers, and creeps. --Allison Block

Broke, recently divorced, and a total deadbeat, Bob Wells has spent his life as a psychiatrist only doing good in the world. When one of his patients with clear paranoid delusions starts to lose a grip, Bob has no choice but to intervene. Emile Bardan is haunted by demons, and he believes that someone is trying to steal his most prized possesion, the legendeary Mask of Utu. Bob thinks it's all part of Emile's imagination until he discovers that Emile is telling the truth and that the mask is worth millions. It's Bob who may actually be the one losing his grip. He's tired of helping people for nothing, tired of being treated like dirt—and while he may have met the girl of his dreams, he doesn't want to lose her because he can't take care of her. There is only one thing to do: Bob is going to steal the mask himself: But doing so may mean making the biggest mistake of all—as he proceeds down a path into a dark abyss from which there is no return.