Jacob Barrstein and his friend James Eaton have a $1000 bet going. James claims that a group of 21st Century people cannot last a week without smartphones, computers, tablets, GPS's etc., while Jacob aims to prove him wrong. They organize a camping trip with 12 people up in the Angeles National Forest Mountains, allowing no electronic devices. When they suffer severe hardship and are stranded on the mountain with no way out, Jacob goes for help on foot and never returns. Six months after his disappearance, hikers stumble onto his remains, and the case changes from a missing person's file to a full-blown police investigation. Once events are brought to the surface, another member of the group is killed. The unexpected ending of A BET TURNED DEADLY is something the reader will not easily forget.

What do you do when you meet someone who looks just like you? Sherry Rinaldi and her husband were on a vacation on Maui, Hawaii when she happened to see the reflection of another woman in a mirror who had her face. What else did they have in common? Returning to her home in California, Sherry does a little research, even though her husband tells her it might not be a good idea. Despite the warning, she tracks down her look-a-like and soon discovers there are things buried in both their lives that are deadly. A murder from forty years ago triggers another death as the truth slowly comes to the surface. This will change everybody's life.

People with old school ties attend a 30th high school reunion and are shocked to hear one of the attendees say he knows who murdered a classmate years earlier. That knowledge gets him killed. Can Detective Scharfkopf with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department piece together what happened back then in order to catch the person who has lived with this secret all these years before another body is added to the list?

Syndicated columnist Tara Blunt knows her track record with men hasn't been stellar and now she's faced with four men in her life... and one of them might be a murderer. But Tara figures her skill at sorting out facts for her news column will get her to the bottom of the unusual death of a brilliant scientist who was in the running to win a $5 million contest to create a new, environmentally friendly product that would replace all types of petroleum-based packaging. When he turns up dead on the day of her interview with him, her investigative-reporter mind goes on the hunt for an even better story, but the truth might kill her.

Kurt Nobel, known as "The Real Estate King," invites a mixture of odd guests to his mansion on the Isle of Ease for a week of snorkeling, scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, and general fun in the sun. The occasion is to celebrate the millionaire's recent marriage to his new young wife, singer Barbie. But all is not pure pleasure and merriment on the tropical island. One person plans an intriguing way to commit murder, and may get away with it, if not for the fortuitous eyewitness, eight-year-old Evie Frederique.

Lyndon Johnson made a life or death bet during his Presidential term, and lost. Intent upon fighting an extended war against a determined foe, he gambled that American society could also endure a vast array of domestic reforms. The result was the turmoil of the 1968 presidential election--a crisis more severe than any since the Civil War. With thousands killed in Vietnam, hundreds dead in civil rights riots, televised chaos at the Democratic National Convention, and two major assassinations, Americans responded by voting for the law and order message of Richard Nixon. In The Deadly Bet, distinguished historian Walter LaFeber explores the turbulent election of 1968 and its significance in the larger context of American history. Looking through the eyes of the year's most important players--including Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, Nguyen Van Thieu, and Lyndon Johnson--LaFeber argues that the domestic upheaval had more impact on the election than the war in Vietnam. Clear, concise, and engaging, this work sheds important light on the crucial year of 1968.

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** Early one November morning, Kara Borden, a pretty fourteen year old, was caught by her parents as she snuck into their Lancaster County, Pennsylvania home. She confessed to spending the night with eighteen-year-old David Ludwig, and her parents—evangelicals who had home-schooled their daughter—were beside themselves with anger. They summoned David to talk immediately. But David arrived to the house with another plan in mind... Two hours later, police arrived at the Borden residence to find that Mr. and Mrs. Borden had been shot dead—and David and Kara were nowhere to be found. Was Kara a hostage? Or an accomplice? A manhunt began that would end hundreds of miles away in a highly televised speed chase. The two lovers were eventually captured... and one would spend a life behind bars. This is the true story of a crime set in a closely-guarded world of fundamentalist belief, and the tale of a God-fearing teenager whose DESIRE TURNED DEADLY.

You have kept us waiting an age! Come along, Bet, do. "She ain't going to funk it, surely!" "No, no, not she, - she's a good 'un, Bet is, - come along, Bet. Joe Wilkins is waiting for us round the corner, and he says Sam is to be there, and Jimmy, and Hester Wright: do come along, now."

Suzanne Morlett heads up a book club at the local library where she works. The members love a good mystery. Little did they know a dead body would turn up after Suzanne invites famous mystery writer Katherine Scherrer to speak to the group. Ms. Scherrer regales them with facts about mystery writing and then drops a bomb. She hints that she knows a secret one of them is hiding. This strikes home with several of the group members. A week later, the writer is found dead in her bathtub. Authorities treat it as accidental, but Suzanne doesn't believe in coincidences, and she launches an amateur investigation that nearly gets her killed.