Swifty King and Kyle Faust are lured by a former nemesis into the search for a program that progressively influences behaviors and could threaten the world. Aided by a tough, smart pal named Kelly, the fellows chase all over the world, searching for the Synthenet and its financial master. In their quest, the boys use another former adversary as bait and almost get her and Swifty killed. Kyle takes out his first bad guys, and both guys screw up their love lives. What’s new? Just another (figurative) day at the office for Swifty and Kyle. This time, their office turns out to have the smell of cordite and salt. Swifty King gets lonesome, so he invited his pal Kyle Faust into the “advice” business. It turns out that Kyle fits well because they are both a little nuts. Kyle is busy trying to solve a problem for the son of one of his ex-wives when he and Swifty eventually discover there is a nexus between the kid’s dilemma and this strange Synthenet thing. In the process, Swifty has a near-death experience, and Kyle ends up having to shoot back when he encounters bad guys. As usual, with these gents, it is mile-a-minute fun and games with a twist around every corner. Imagine how a couple of senior citizens who still think they are thirty deal with the aches and pains of age while they measure up to the challenges of today. The adventures are never in short supply with Swifty Inc., and neither are the convoluted switches and changes. Come join us again!

Swifty King’s adventures have been detailed in five previous novels. He is the proprietor of Swifty King, Advice (SKA), and along with his partner, retired businessman Kyle Faust, he provides the kind of advice and negotiation that governments and private citizens cannot do on their own. Recently, the two men, along with some special colleagues, put a stop to an international conspiracy to influence minds using all forms of media, including video games. The intent was to inspire creative souls on the edge to work together to upend society as we know it. The evil mind behind this plan was thwarted once, but now he is back. Somehow, he has gained release and has continued his evil plan. Swifty and Kyle are involuntarily sucked into this world again. Swifty is kidnapped, tortured, and reintroduced to an old friend by a sadistic enforcer. The “brain’s” new man really enjoys inflicting pain and indiscriminate murder. All the while, the guys have to deal with the business, which includes bailing out a movie producer and finding an answer to the kidnapping of his wife. It is an almost insurmountable challenge that takes these characters halfway around the world and nearly costs Swifty his life! Along the way, Swifty bonds with a former target, and Kyle finds a new love. It is harrowing, dangerous, and sometimes fun but never dull. Swifty and Conspiracy Control is intense and fast. Enjoy it!

SWIFTY KING and his partner KYLE FAUST are in the ADVICE business. The “Razzle Dazzle” has them advising a woman with a sordid past how to deal with an anonymous threat, received in a mysterious, Chanel laced, Pink Envelop. As she struggles to protect her family business and a high powered son, who plays fast and loose in high finance, the boys have to pull the truth from the family in order to protect them. The effort leads them into strange territory. While dealing with Millie Corkley’s issues, the guys have a challenge with Kyle’s former corporate pilot, who is on the run from partners who have hired a “hit man” to force him to conform with an agreement. The Pilot, Marco, makes it tough for our heroes as he gets mixed up with a female felon who is very hard to handle. Both adventures, lead Swifty and Kyle to employ the “Razzle Dazzle” in order to deal with this convoluted mess.

Laced with intrigue and surprise, this Swifty adventure takes the hero into the depths of Somali Pirate country, back to Vegas, and into the inner workings of an exotic criminal organization. Blackmail, betrayal, mystery, and secrecy abound in this tale of friendships gone awry and family members shunned and exploited for pay. Swifty spent two years in federal lock up and was forced to change his name. Unable to find a regular job, Swifty put his jail house education to work. His profession takes him to strange places, but it is right back home when he tries to help his old friend, Count Montecello the Magician, that he finds himself immersed in a caldron of corruption he may never escape. Swifty is aided by the usual cast of characters who enrich this tale of deceit, murder, blackmail . . . and strange friendships.

You . . . beeelong to us now, bitch! The giants voice boomed across the windswept beach. Get out here . . . now! The retched gargoyle bounded onto the porch, snorting through the wood-and-thatch walls of the cabin. We are gonna cutcha and gutcha after we play with ya! he roared. Get out here, bitch! The giant belched his commands, staggering from the porch and bellowing from the windblown sand. Dan searched frantically for a weapon. His rifle had been in the skiff, and they had it. His .45 was on the porch . . . someplace. He couldnt make a fight of it . . . there were too many. They might shoot him and get to Claire. Dan rifled the kitchen drawers and chucked all the cutlery onto the floor. Sorting through it, he found a big carving knife. At least he could take one of them down as he died. Give it up, slug. We told ya, the money or the bitch. No money . . . well, she gets us! Haaaaaaaaaa! Yeaaaaaaah! Give it up! The redheaded ogre was wild with rage! As the wind whistled through the eaves of the cabin, Dan felt fear beyond anything he ever felt, even when Saigon was overrun in 75. The pounding grew louder, and the splintering of the walls made it clear they had only minutes, maybe seconds. Then the firebomb hit the door. They had closed and locked the storm windows, the heavy boards that protected glass in case a typhoon struck. Though a major storm would blow the walls away, it would leave windows, roof, and footing alone. It seldom happened, but Dan was attempting to be prepared. But there was no way to prepare for this.

"ROGER F. GREAVES grew up in the Los Angeles area. During his more than five decades involved with the business community, government and the military he has come in contact with many unique personalities. He chronicles some of them in the Swifty novels. Roger is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach. He is an air force veteran, a private pilot and a compulsive story teller. Roger and his wife Erika reside with their two Westies Scottsdale, Arizona. They are active in business, political and community affairs in Arizona and California."

In the 1960s, Andy Warhol’s paintings redefined modern art. His films provoked heated controversy, and his Factory was a hangout for the avant-garde. In the 1970s, after Valerie Solanas’s attempt on his life, Warhol become more entrepreneurial, aligning himself with the rich and famous. Bob Colacello, the editor of Warhol’s Interview magazine, spent that decade by Andy’s side as employee, collaborator, wingman, and confidante. In these pages, Colacello takes us there with Andy: into the Factory office, into Studio 54, into wild celebrity-studded parties, and into the early-morning phone calls where the mysterious artist was at his most honest and vulnerable. Colacello gives us, as no one else can, a riveting portrait of this extraordinary man: brilliant, controlling, shy, insecure, and immeasurably influential. When Holy Terror was first published in 1990, it was hailed as the best of the Warhol accounts. Now, some two decades later, this portrayal retains its hold on readers—as does Andy’s timeless power to fascinate, galvanize, and move us.

What is terrorism? Academics search in vain for the unholy grail: the definition of terrorism that will exonerate or condemn American officials. There are many vying definitions and no tribunal to resolve the contest. In this unique essay, Ron Hirschbein analyzes conflicts in which officials themselves called their actions “terrorist.” He reveals that terrorism didn’t always get bad press. In fact, terror bombing was indispensable to winning World War II. Not only did the Allied Forces bombed German cities, but they also used the nuclear bomb in Japan, killing many noncombatant civilians. During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation became the strategy to deter war between the superpowers. Many ironies are brought to light in revisiting these conflicts, such as the fact that it was accepted that safety depended upon the willingness to detonate weapons of mass destruction. Not even American citizens enjoyed noncombatant immunity during the Cold War as they were held hostage to mutually assured destruction and marked for sacrifice in various strategic scenarios. Indeed, their lives were risked in confronting crises in Berlin and Cuba. Subsequent conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the War on Terror itself, are also examined. Like World War II, all involved killing noncombatants by accident or design. Casting these conflicts in an ironic light reveals incongruities in language and situations in which triumphant dreams become self-defeating realities (as with the second Iraq war). The War on Terror, now rebranded as an “Overseas Contingency Plan” seems to be the answer to a Jihadist’s prayer. Further, U.S.-led covert attacks and assassinations by drones raise many discussions of legalities. And today the curse of terrorism is fodder for captivating primetime entertainment, enjoyed even by the president of the United States.

Al Qaeda did not stop after 9/11. Its reign of terror continued with bombings and mayhem across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. But its frustration grew as the group failed to fundamentally undermine America and its allies. Five years later the time was ripe for another spectacular mega-plot. Fresh from masterminding the London Underground carnage, one veteran operative set in motion a new operation to destroy passenger aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean—and kill thousands of people in the process. Disruption tells the story of that conspiracy and the heroic efforts by the intelligence services of the United States, Great Britain, and Pakistan to uncover and crush it. From the streets of London to the training camps of Pakistan to the corridors of power in Washington DC, the story unfolds with murders, double-crosses, probes, jailbreaks, and explosions. Former counterterrorism analyst Aki J. Peritz brings the story to life with vivid imagery, interviews with top intelligence officials, and never-before-seen declassified documents. Disruption is the not-to-be-missed account of the race to stop a terrorist conspiracy that would have remade our world—forever.

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them.