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Fiction
Steven McCord, a lieutenant of police in a fairly large midwestern city, has been coarsened by twenty years' exposure to violence and cruelty. At forty-two, he has reached a crossroads in his career and in his life. He's been entrusted with command of one of his city's toughest districts, and as a senior lieutenant, he is poised for promotion to captain. But instead he's studying law-because he wants out. His old mentor, Sergeant Hughes, fears that McCord will soon enter into that most contemptible of all legal specialties, criminal defense. McCord denies it, but in truth he doesn't know exactly where he's going to end up.
Then comes the "common ordinary murder" of an old eccentric-a resident of McCord's district-and with it a personal crisis for McCord. Having given up on God long ago, he now seems to be losing faith in humanity as well. But something about the case draws him, against his will, deeper into the lives of the victim and his family, pulling McCord back to a place where he will know again the passion and pain of being alive.
Written in the intense, clear-cut style that is Donald Pfarrer's trademark, "A Common Ordinary Murder" is a gripping story of crime and punishment; it is also the drama of one man's test of love and strength.
Advance praise for "A Common Ordinary Murder"
"A number of intriguing, complicated characters; a particularly heinous crime; solid police work; and a poignant sketch of a city in decline are good reasons to read this one . . . really an examination of faith, its loss, marriage, and love."
-"Booklist"
From the 2017 winner of the Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction comes a powerful and timely story of race, politics, injustice, and murder as shocking and incendiary as today's headlines.
When the body of Jamal Cousin, president of the pre-eminent black fraternity at the Florida's flagship university, is discovered hogtied in the Stygian water swamps of the Suwanee River Valley, the death sets off a firestorm that threatens to rage out of control when a fellow student, Mark Towson, the president of a prominent white fraternity, is accused of the crime.
Contending with rising political tensions, racial unrest, and a sensational media, Towson's defense attorney, Jack Swyteck, knows that the stakes could not be higher--inside or outside the old Suwanee County Couthouse. The evidence against his client, which includes a threatening text message referencing "strange fruit" on the river, seems overwhelming. Then Jack gets a break that could turn the case. Jamal's gruesome murder bears disturbing similarities to another lynching that occurred back in the Jim Crow days of 1944. Are the chilling parallels purely coincidental? With a community in chaos and a young man's life in jeopardy, Jack will use every resource to find out.
As he navigates each twist and turn of the search, Jack becomes increasingly convinced that his client may himself be the victim of a criminal plan more sinister than the case presented by the state attorney. Risking his own reputation, this principled man who has devoted his life to the law plunges headfirst into the darkest recesses of the South's past, and its murky present, to uncover answers.
For Jack, it's about the truth. Traversing time, from the days of strict segregation to the present, he'll find it--no matter what the cost--and bring much-needed justice to Suwanee County.
The most meaningful journeys encompass more than the distance we travel...
When Martha files for divorce from her controlling and dismissive husband, Tony, she knows she'll have to begin again. Tony persuaded her to abandon her dreams of chocolate and pastry fame, and to break a promise to her grandmother, to follow him and his dreams.
Martha's heart pulls her back to her hometown in seaside Maine, to Gram, and to the bakery where Gram is still waiting for her to return. But before she can go home, Martha must learn who she really is, and her journey of discovery leads her south-from Baltimore and Tony's betrayal, to the Gulf coast of Florida and the friends she'd made in culinary school, when her dreams had felt within her reach.
When she eventually returns to Baltimore, life offers her another chance at love. But Martha can't believe in love again until she first believes in herself.
A Dream Worth Keeping
is a story of friendship and loss, guilt and forgiveness. It takes readers on a journey of love and redemption-and reminds us that we can't love anyone else until we love ourselves.
A deadly fire exposes the dark side of Amish life in A Gathering of Secrets, a harrowing new thriller in the New York Times bestselling series (July 2017) by Linda Castillo.
When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside--burned alive--Kate suspects murder. Who would want a well-liked, hardworking young Amish man dead? Kate delves into the investigation only to find herself stonewalled by the community to which she once belonged. Is their silence a result of the Amish tenet of separation? Or is this peaceful and deeply religious community conspiring to hide a truth no one wants to talk about? Kate doubles down only to discover a plethora of secrets and a chilling series of crimes that shatters everything she thought she knew about her Amish roots--and herself. As Kate wades through a sea of suspects, she's confronted by her own violent past and an unthinkable possibility.