Marked Man

Joe Gunther, a Vermont cop for most of his adult life and now the head of the VBI (Vermont Bureau of Investigation) gets the call that every law enforcement person hates and every friend and family member of a policeman fears -- a cop has been shot and killed. A deputy sheriff was shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. From what can been seen on the cruiser's tape recorder of the killers, it is believed that they were a couple of Boston-based drug runners who had been stopped by the deputy on their way from Canada down to Boston. Which is what brings Gunther and his team to the investigation - an attempt to shut down the major drug running operation. Specially that of one Alan Budney, disaffected son of a lobsterman, now a drug kingpin, who uses the closed, clannish lobster fishing community and his extended family in particular, to move drugs along the New England coast. The most recent book - and last from Grand Central - Chat, has spent four week on the extended Booksense bestseller list and, as always, has been on the NEBA bestseller list since publication. He is the winner of the 2004 New England Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction.

To the casual observer, Mark LaFarge has it going on. He’s got a beautiful wife, cute kids, a McMansion in the South Bay . . . the guy is the living embodiment of the American dream. But nothing is ever as it seems. LaFarge is a career criminal who’s never done an honest day’s work in his life . . . and that life of crime, completely separate from the life he presents to the world, is about to catch up with him. And there will be blood . . . a great deal of blood. Collects Marked Man stories from Dark Horse Presents #1-#8. * All-new adult intrigue from the creator of American Flagg! and Black Kiss! * From the pages of Dark Horse Presents!

February 21, 1965. Controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X is gunned down during a speech in Manhattan. Few were shocked by the news of Malcolm X‘s death. Since 1952 the former member of the Nation of Islam had supported the Nation‘s philosophy of violence as the method to achieve justice for blacks in the United States. But in March 1964, after a major shift in his philosophy, Malcolm changed his message. He no longer agreed with the Nation of Islam and feuded with its leaders. In this chronicle of an assassination, find out the answers to the questions about who assassinated Malcolm and learn more about the impact of Malcolm X‘s life, and his death, on civil rights in the United States.

After drinking rather too much one evening, Carl wakes up with a splitting hangover and the name Chantal Adair tattooed on his chest. Who is or was Chantal, and what does she have to do with the elderly lady who just called in a very large favor from Carl's father? Ogling every woman within a hundred miles and seizing any opportunity to drive someone else's flashy car or drink someone else's expensive booze, Carl works his grimy, self-deprecating charm for all it's worth as he searches for answers that are guaranteed to be unpleasant.

Once accused When Max Savage opens his practice in a remote, seductively beautiful bayou town, he hopes it's the start of a new life. He's got his reputation as a skilled surgeon, his two brothers by his side and a fresh chance. But soon Max discovers he can't escape a past riddled with accusations of murder…or the faces of two dead women. Especially since another woman is missing, and he was the last to see her alive. Always suspected Annie Duhon knows all about nightmares that shatter life's dreams and the need to escape the past. But her fascination with Max grows, even when disturbing rumors start to surface and her darkest visions seem to play out in living color. Can she trust Max with her secrets and her deepest desires? Or is he the specter she sees when she sleeps—a killer stalking women with his cleansing fire? Is she about to become his next victim?

1774: Ten weeks after the Boston Tea Party. Abigail Adams, wife of attorney John Adams, who is deeply involved with the Sons of Liberty—a secret organization opposing the Crown—remains as committed to the cause as her husband. And the arrest of one of the Sons comes as a shock to both of them. Because it isn’t for treason—it’s for murder . . . The accused is young Henry Knox; the victim, a royal representative to the colonial court. Rumors begin swirling—did the murder indeed arise from the competition between the two for the affections of the daughter of a prominent Loyalist, or was it politically motivated? Abigail and John believe Knox to be innocent, despite the strong evidence against him. While John works to clear his client’s name, Abigail begins her own investigation. But as she pursues the truth, the killer pursues her—threatening not only Abigail but her vulnerable family . . .

In Archer Mayor's Marked Man, the death of a local millionaire becomes suspicious when Joe Gunther learns that he was not who he claimed. A year ago, local philanthropist and millionaire Nathan Lyon died a natural death in his sprawling mansion, a 150,000 square foot converted mill, surrounded by his loving, attentive family. Or so it seemed at the time. Now Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team has discovered that almost nothing about that story was true. Nathan Lyon was actually Nick Bianchi from Providence, Rhode Island. His money came from Mafia-tainted sources. And his family now seems to be dying themselves and their deaths are now revealed to be murders. As Gunther’s team desperately works to uncover what is going on at The Mill, who is responsible and what they are trying to accomplish, Joe himself travels to Rhode Island to look into the original source of the money. While the police are doing their jobs, private investigator Sally Kravitz teams up with reporter Rachel Reiling to expose the truth behind this tangled and expanding web of duplicity, greed, and obsession. Having betrayed many, it’s no surprise that Nathan Lyon was a marked man. But now Gunther has to figure out who, among the many, killed him, and stop them before their killing spree claims another.

1971. Brooklyn, New York. Undercover cop Frank Serpico is knocking on a drug dealer’s door. His partners are there to back him up, but when the door opens, he’s staring down the barrel of a gun—and his partners are nowhere to be found. For more than a century, the New York Police Department had been plagued by corruption, with cops openly taking bribes from gamblers and drug dealers. Not Serpico. He refused to take dirty money and fought to shed light on the dark underbelly of the NYPD. But instead of being hailed as a hero, he became a target for every crooked cop on the force. In Marked Man, John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro bring this true story of police corruption to life. Join Frank Serpico on his one-man crusade to clean up the largest police force in the United States. And discover the price he had to pay for being an honest cop.