Ambition drives people to succeed. Ambition can make the price of success irrelevant. Ambition can kill your soul. Sherry Proper works hard to keep her life simple. She wants to stick to the important things: do good, interesting work, spend time with interesting friends and lovers. Now her tendency to stick her nose into the wrong working of things is tearing that worled apart! Her work and life have fused together and it's gotten impossible to separate them. Crime and love, passion and paranoia make for a strange, sometimes unpalatable, brew. A compelling story of urban crime, greed, and corruption and the danger of looking too closely at any of it. Get a copy now!

What would you do to get ahead? We all have our limits and our moments in time. Ambition Kills will discover all of those.

When the daughter of a billionaire Hollywood director is found murdered after what appears to be a kidnapping gone wrong, Los Angeles Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller find themselves at the epicenter of a combustible and high-profile court case. Then a prime suspect is revealed to be one of Hollywood's most popular and powerful talent managers -- and best friend to the victim's father. With the director vouching for the manager's innocence, the Hollywood media machine commences an all-out war designed to discredit both Rachel and her case. Killer Ambition is at once a thrilling ride through the darker side of Tinseltown and a stunning courtroom drama with the brilliant insider's perspective that Marcia Clark is uniquely qualified to give.

Politics. Power. Murder. If you want something bad enough, would you kill for it? Marcus Blanchard has worked for years to get to this night-to the eve of the Eleventh District Congressional race in Cleveland. He's determined to oust long-reigning, crooked politicians Julius McGee and William McLaughlin, and has asked his favorite law-school professor, Edward Mead, to witness the victory. But just as the results are about to be announced, Marcus disappear and a woman is murdered. Worse, Alontay Johnson is his old girlfriend, and he's caught crouching over her body. Did he strangle her, or was he framed? And who will believe him? It's up to the quirky, arthritic Ed Mead, who hasn't been in a courtroom in years, to defend his friend and client while the State of Ohio seeks the death penalty.

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A journalist pieces together the mysteries surrounding her ex-husband’s descent into drug addiction while trying to rebuild a life for her family, taking readers on an intimate journey into the world of white-collar drug abuse. “A rare combination of journalistic rigor, personal courage, and writerly grace.”—Bill Clegg, author of Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man Something was wrong with Peter. Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. She thought he looked sick and needed to see a doctor, and indeed, he told her he had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Yet in many ways, Peter seemed to have it all: a beautiful house by the beach, expensive cars, and other luxuries that came with an affluent life. Eilene assumed his odd behavior was due to stress and overwork—he was a senior partner at a prominent law firm and had been working more than sixty hours a week for the last twenty years. Although they were divorced, Eilene and Peter had been partners and friends for decades, so when she and her children were unable to reach Peter for several days, Eilene went to his house to see if he was OK. So begins Smacked, a brilliant and moving memoir of Eilene’s shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly thirty years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening. Eilene discovers that Peter led a secret life, one that started with pills and ended with opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine. He was also addicted to work; the last call Peter ever made was to dial in to a conference call. Eilene is determined to learn all she can about Peter’s hidden life, and also about drug addiction among ambitious, high-achieving professionals like him. Through extensive research and interviews, she presents a picture of drug dependence today in that moneyed, upwardly mobile world. She also embarks on a journey to re-create her life in the wake of loss, both of the person—and the relationship—that profoundly defined the woman she had become.

A corrupt judge in a mob murder case. A disillusioned pastor, hungry for power. A cynical reporter, sniffing for a scandal. A gambling addict whose secret tape threatens the lives of everyone who hears it.New York Times bestselling author, Lee Strobel, weaves these edgy characters into an intricate thriller set in a gleaming, suburban megachurch, a big-city newspaper struggling for survival, and the shadowy corridors of political intrigue. The unexpected climax is as gripping as the contract killing that punctuates the opening scene.

Shortlisted for the 2017 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, Nonfiction Category Longlisted for the 2018 Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors Tim Bosma was a happy young father with a promising future when he listed his pickup truck for sale online, went for a test drive with two strangers, and never returned. The story of the Hamilton man’s strange disappearance in May 2013 captured headlines across the country and took over social media, resonating with everyone who had ever taken a test drive or bought and sold goods online. When Dellen Millard and Mark Smich were eventually arrested and charged with Bosma’s murder, the mystery only deepened. Millard was the wealthy heir to an aviation business. Smich was his ne’er-do-well best friend from a middle-class family. There was no obvious reason why the pair had made it their deadly mission to steal a truck, murder its owner, and incinerate the body. Tim Bosma was their randomly chosen “thrill kill” target. Veteran journalist and private investigator Ann Brocklehurst had a front-row seat at Millard’s and Smich’s 2016 trial, where many of the questions about their shocking crime were finally answered. Others still linger, waiting to be further explained at two more murder trials set for 2017. Both Millard and Smich have been charged with the first-degree murder of Laura Babcock, who disappeared in summer 2012. And Millard alone faces murder charges in the death of his father, which previously has been ruled a suicide. Compelling and suspenseful, Dark Ambition chronicles an unfathomable crime and its chilling perpetrators.

This is the story of two couples who came from Germany in times of war when Hitler was in power. They wanted a better future, and they knew that in the United States, they would have everything they dreamed of. With a lot of sacrifices, they made it and arrived in New York.

What role should ambition play in our lives? Our culture generally buys the American Dream that yes, we can fulfill all our aspirations. But to seek personal power and fame in the competitive world of Western culture has a dark side. Ambition can be subtle and enticing, leading to great unhappiness. Questions about ambition are more urgent now than they have ever been. What is ambition, exactly, and is it okay to be ambitious? What part does self-esteem play in personal growth and productivity? Can the ego's drive to get ahead and make a name for oneself lead to obsession or a growing narcissism? Does the desire to do one's best constitute ambition, or faithfulness to one's calling? Can personal character and integrity be eroded by too much celebrity and success? The writers in this book address these complex questions about ambition in a variety of ways and in wonderfully different voices. The pieces range from personal musings to thought experiments and more formal reflections. With elegance and wisdom, the writers raise and reflect on the question that lies at our most intimate core of being and at the very center of our culture.