The Edgar Award–winning debut novel from "America's best storyteller" about a man drawn into espionage by his mysterious business partner ( The New York Times Book Review ).At the height of the Cold War, two Americans are runnng a bar in the West German capital, called Mac's place. One of the pair, Michael Padillo, isn't around a lot; he keeps disappearing on "business trips." McCorkle, his partner, wisely doesn't ask ques...

A freelance fixer comes out of retirement to rescue the President’s kidnapped brotherAmerican agents abduct a high-profile terrorist in broad daylight on the streets of London, subduing him with a tranquilizer. He dies a few hours later on a flight back to Washington, DC, and the body is dropped into the ocean.Hours later, the President’s brother—a political powerhouse in his own right—boards a plane to Las Vegas that doesn’t land in Nevada. Libyan radicals...

Two hard-nosed bosses scrap for control of America’s largest unionBorn to a steelworker but harboring theatrical aspirations, Donald Cubbin grew up tempted by two careers. A Hollywood scout finally notices him, but Cubbin has already taken a job with the local union boss. He’s always regretted that decision—especially now.After decades climbing the ranks, Cubbin runs the show as the union’s president. An election looms, and his opponent proves to be a dange...

An old friend draws barman Mac McCorkle into a deadly international game.As the saying goes, you can't pick your friends. If you could, Mac McCorkle would disown Padilla. They owned a bar together in Bonn, the West German capital, and stayed partners even after Padilla's sideline as a CIA operative got the bar blown up. Padilla was thought to be dead and erased from the CIA's files -- but now he's back on the agency's turf. Mac moved to Washington, DC, after the tr...

Searching for a killer of Nazi war criminals, an ex-spy finds an unlikely ally.

Missionary Stew follows political fundraiser Draper Haere on a quest to uncover the secret behind a right-wing coup in an unnamed Central american country. He seeks the information in order to get dirt on his boss's opponent in the 1984 US Presidential election.Haere's pursuit of the truth repeatedly puts Haere's life in danger, as the powers-that-be stop at nothing to keep the episode buried. Along the way, Haere carries on an affair with the wife of his candidate and enli...

An old-school Southerner is recruited to run a political campaign in a dangerous African election.Clinton Shartelle doesn't seem like a good choice to run a political campaign in Albertia. For one thing, he's American, and Albertia is a small coastal republic in Africa, about to be cut loose from the English Crown. For another, Shartelle is Southern and fiercely proud of it, and his ideas about racial politics veer unpredictably from progressive to rigidly old-fash...

A saloon owner and a former CIA agent team up to help a pair of assassins escape death.The twins who walk into Mac McCorkle's bar look identical, despite their differing genders. Their names are Wanda and Walter Gothar, and from the steel in their eyes it's apparent that their business isn't the friendly kind. They've come seeking help from Mac and his partner, Padilla, an ex-CIA agent who has skulked in the world's darkest corners. Anxious for a big payday, the tw...

Searching for a killer of Nazi war criminals, an ex-spy finds an unlikely ally.Nicolae Polscaru, a three-and-a-half-foot-tall dwarf, is tossed into a Hollywood swimming pool by four drunken screenwriters, who take bets on how long he can tread water. Minor Jackson, his OSS training still fresh a year after World War II's end, beats the bullies senseless and pulls Nicolae from the water. A friendship is born. Jackson is broke, his spying days over, and Nicolae offer...

Most leading global militaries, led by the United States, embrace military assistance as an essential tool for achieving their high-priority strategic objectives; yet, in spite of its prominence, military assistance activities are poorly informed by coherent strategy, nor are they rooted in underlying theoretical frameworks that help strategists understand and exploit causal mechanisms that can produce desired behaviors and outcomes. As a result, military assistance has struggled to consis...

Although the United States has prioritized its fight against militant groups for two decades, the transnational jihadist movement has proved surprisingly resilient and adaptable. Many analysts and practitioners have underestimated these militant organizations, viewing them as unsophisticated or unchanging despite the ongoing evolution of their tactics and strategies.In Enemies Near and Far, two internationally recognized experts use newly available documents from al-Qaeda ...

In this brilliant debut thriller, set in the US embassy in Turkey, one young woman finds herself at the centre of a deadly plot and marked for death ... An intelligent, fast-paced spy novel for fans of Olen Steinhauser and Joseph Kanon.**SHE IS THE WOMAN WHO KNOWS TOO MUCH ...Penny Kessler,** a young intern at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, wakes up in a hospital on the morning of July 5th to find herself at the centre of an international crisis. The d...