Life After Russian Roulette

“My tired, bloodshot eyes focused on the dark reflection of the man staring back at me. I strained to visualize and reconcile with the person I had become years ago. Bloodstained faces of all the people I had hurt and destroyed in years of undercover work in drug groups and organized crime associations flooded my mind. However, what still haunted me the most was the shooting of one man that we justified as cops. Now, here I was in seminary preparing for final graduation and future ordination. It was like looking into the eyes of a stranger. My life became a labyrinth of distorted loyalties and false realities as an undercover police detective. What I had believed at one time in life about right and wrong, morals and ethics, was now as grey, dirty and hazy as the mirror I was looking into – like painful reflections of my life. I wanted to kill the man that controlled my mind, my body, my soul and my life. I wanted the game to end.” This is a true story based on actual events. My story begins during a long and lonely night in a dingy dorm room in seminary as I contemplated my past and the dark figures – lives that still tormented me from years of undercover assignments as a police officer and detective. Suicide, numbed cold by the warmth of brandy, appeared to be the only solution to finally end the nightmares which drove me toward a desire for ordination. The series of events that follow that long night will take the reader on a winding course of exploration and confrontation through the early days of the police academy, the streets of Western District in Baltimore City, a history making police strike, undercover in drug groups and organized crime, the Pagans motorcycle gang, the docks of the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore and eventually a shooting that affected my mind, body and soul. After resigning from the police department and working as a private investigator for defense attorneys who had defended most of the people I arrested as a police detective, I find myself detained in the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C. I was running from the reality of life, unsure of the destination. Eventually, after ordination and struggling spiritually to find my faith working in parish ministry, I finally find the one blessing from God that I was searching for most of my life – LOVE. With Sharon, I come to know, understand, feel and find a power of love that transcends all physical forms that most people define love. I find a level of love that was not limited to physical, sexual desires like all my past relationships. However, this love, Sharon, will eventually be taken from me. At first glance, you might think you know how police and undercover detectives work, but you could be dead wrong. Hidden within the plot of this story is a series of inner conflicts, moral and ethical dilemmas and choices that many people in law enforcement make in the line of duty. How an individual enforces the law, many times, is reduced to personal decisions. When you chose to cross the line, when you justify that wrong is right – you walk a very dangerous path in life. Then you deal with the consequences as you wrestle with your conscience. I only hope that, in the end, the reader will find what I continue to seek and search for in life – peace, love and enlightenment.

Life After Russian Roulette is a psychological thriller based on true accounts from my life as an undercover detective in Baltimore during the 1970s. Immersed in a world of drug groups, organized crime, and police corruption, I became addicted to "the game" as I wrestled mentally with illegal, unethical, and immoral choices as the lines between right and wrong blurred before my eyes to justify the end goal. To catch the worst criminals, we had to become criminals ourselves. This moral downslide leads to depression, suicidal thoughts, and mentally destructive actions as I numbed my feelings with increased addiction to alcohol. After suspension and resignation from the force, the ghosts continued to haunt me. The thought of death became my only escape from the hell I created. Eventually, a near fatal accident almost ended my life. High on morphine in a hospital, I would make a commitment to God for saving my life. I would enter seminary, receive ordination, and enter parish ministry. Still struggling spiritually to find my faith, I would finally find the one blessing I had been searching for all my life-love.

Murder, corruption, sanctioned killings, and destroyed lives still haunt an alcoholic ex-narcotics detective as he prepares for ordination in seminary. He seeks forgiveness and redemption as he confronts his shadowy past in the dark cave of his psyche and soul. LIFE AFTER RUSSIAN ROULETTE: REDEMPTION is a psychological thriller based on true accounts of the life of Michael B. Kaminski during the years he was an undercover police detective in Baltimore, Maryland during the 1970's. Immersed in an underworld of drug groups, organized crime associations, and police corruption, Kaminski became addicted to "the game" as he wrestled mentally, psychologically, and emotionally with illegal, unethical, and immoral choices and decisions. The lines of right and wrong, good and bad began to blur before his eyes as he justified the end goal. Living under three fictitious identities for almost five years, Kaminski's conscience created a moral downslide that inevitably led to depression, suicidal thoughts, and mentally destructive behaviors as he numbed his true feelings and loss of personal identity with increased addiction to alcohol. After resigning from the police department with three contracts out on his life, and after two failed attempts to kill him, Kaminski went to work as a licensed private investigator for the criminal lawyers that he worked against when he was undercover. Eventually, a near-fatal accident almost ended his life. High on morphine in an unknown hospital, Kaminski would make a commitment to God for saving his life again. After entering a seminary and receiving ordination, Kaminski struggled with his faith. Finally, he would find what he had been searching for all his life. At first glance, you might think you know how police and undercover detectives work. But you could be dead wrong. How an individual enforces the law, many times, is reduced to personal decisions. Hidden within the plot of this story is a series of inner conflicts that many people in law enforcement make in the line of duty.

The incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the U.S. election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency. "Russian Roulette is...the most thorough and riveting account." -- The New York Times Russian Roulette is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election. The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no "third-rate burglary." It was far more sophisticated and sinister -- a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle -- including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- and Russia. Russian Roulette chronicles and explores this bizarre scandal, explains the stakes, and answers one of the biggest questions in American politics: How and why did a foreign government infiltrate the country's political process and gain influence in Washington?

'It reads like fiction, but it is, astonishingly, history' THE TIMES IN 1917, AN ECCENTRIC BAND OF BRITISH SPIES IS SMUGGLED INTO NEWLY SOVIET RUSSIA. Their goal is to defeat Lenin's plan to destroy British India and bring down the democracies of the West. These extraordinary spies, led by Mansfield Cumming, proved brilliantly successful. They found a wholly new way to deal with enemies, one that relied on espionage and dirty tricks rather than warfare. They were the unsung founders of today's modern, highly professional secret services. They were also the inspiration for fictional heroes to follow, from James Bond to James Bond. 'Readers will find themselves as gripped as they would be by the very best of Fleming or le Carré' SUNDAY TIMES 'Marvellous, meticulously researched and truly groundbreaking' SIMON WINCHESTER

In 1917, a band of communist revolutionaries stormed the Winter Palace of Tsar Nicholas II-a dramatic and explosive act marking that Vladimir Lenin's communist revolution was now underway. But Lenin would not be satisfied with overthrowing the Tsar. His goal was a global revolt that would topple all Western capitalist regimes-starting with the British Empire. Russian Roulette tells the spectacular and harrowing story of the British spies in revolutionary Russia and their mission to stop Lenin's red tide from washing across the free world. They were an eccentric cast of characters, led by Mansfield Cumming, a one-legged, monocle-wearing former sea captain, and included novelist W. Somerset Maugham, beloved children's author Arthur Ransome, and the dashing, ice-cool Sidney Reilly, the legendary Ace of Spies and a model for Ian Fleming's James Bond. Cumming's network would pioneer the field of covert action and would one day become MI6. Living in disguise, constantly switching identities, they infiltrated Soviet commissariats, the Red Army, and Cheka (the feared secret police), and would come within a whisker of assassinating Lenin. In a sequence of bold exploits that stretched from Moscow to the central Asian city of Tashkent, this unlikely band of agents succeeded in foiling Lenin's plot for global revolution.