No detailed description available for "The Dark Side of Paradise".

The novel is based on a true story, my own story, which happened in 1998 in the Eastern Caribbean and in Western Europe. I was in my mid-fifties, recovering from a radioactive divorce, loss of home and family and my company, a successful ad agency. I had simply reached a point in my life where I had to make some new choices about the future, which at the time seemed like it would be shorter and less financially rewarding than what had gone before. I knew, however, that my broad life experiences would serve me well in whatever opportunities presented themselves. An attorney friend of mine, who was active in international finance and offshore banking, introduced me to Sir James “Son” Mitchell, the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Eastern Caribbean. I was hired to set up and promote banking conferences in Puerto Rico and London to introduce the island’s new banking laws to the world of international finance. And we had some encouraging early results. Until one night in San Juan, Son Mitchell asked me to get involved as a PR consultant in a murder trial in Kingstown, the capitol. Two rich hillbillies from West Virginia, on a coke and alcohol tour of the islands on their very large sailboat, had murdered a very popular, local water taxi driver. The couple was incarcerated, but had hired an expensive legal team with major press connections to crush the reputation of Son and his government’s legal system. I got involved, we had success early on, but then an extremely rich and powerful Italian “family” got involved. What started after that was a James Bondian adventure that became quite dangerous personally. And made me thankful for my experience as a Navy officer in Viet Nam. Quite naturally, a lot of beautiful women were involved in the process, and thankfully I got out alive. I wrote the novel in the first person because I did not want to stray from the spine of the story, although as a writer, I felt privileged to speak of my personal experiences growing up in the South, and the marvelous blessings that had come my way over the years. I hope you like the book. Dick Reed, author

In the early seventies, the anti-establishment counterculture evolved into a new movement of health and agricultural purists. Rebelling against the politics and pollution of the U.S., these young people sought to create their own natural paradise outside its borders. This is the story of one such expatriated American, a starry-eyed wild child who searches for a fantasy lifestyle and gets more than she bargains for. The storyline, a colorful tapestry of romantic adventure set in the jungles of Belize, Central America, is flavored with vivid imagery, picturesque characters, wild animals, and Mayan archaeological intrigue. But it is also a compelling story of a maturing young woman and her battle with the darker side of human nature, of innocence lost, deception, infidelity, and heartbreaking exile. Full of poignant moral dilemma, it is a story of one woman's survival, of exceptional courage, strength in overcoming adversity, spiritual growth, and eventual triumph.

This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.

Geoffrey Robinson explores this discrepancy, and in doing so exposes the multiple myths about Bali. His work offers the first thorough political history of this varied and complex island.

Tells the story of the neurotic David Nowak who lives with his wife and children in the Northern California wilderness giving his family an insular and idyllic existence.

The Dark Side of Paradise blends together Richard Kerr's professional experiences from his over-thirty-year career as a high-ranking official in the CIA with his idyllic life as a Florida retiree living in beautiful Vero Beach. Using his involvement in a local writing group as a common thread weaved through the stories, the author shares tales that explore the inner workings of the mind and examine good vs. evil. How do we decide between right and wrong? What do we do when we think no one is watching? Richard Kerr crafts short stories that are unsettling, amusing, whimsical, and illuminating. Divided into four sections, the book begins with spy-centric tales, moves to stories of surprise, segues into tales of death, and finishes on a lighter note. All the while, regardless of the section, the author's writer group and some of its members are weaved in and out of the stories to provide a common bond. Only someone of his unique background could provide such an enlightening and intriguing look inside the mind of a CIA intelligence official as filtered through captivating tales that remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned.

There is an epigram in this book from the Phil Ochs song, "Crucifixion", about the Kennedy assassination, that states: I fear to contemplate that beneath the greatest love, lies a hurricane of hate. On February 11th 1963, the Beatles recorded "There's a Place", a dazzling, unheralded tune which was included on their electrifying debut album, Please Please Me. This song firmly laid the foundation on which a huge utopian dream of the sixties would be built. Within that dream, however, also lay the seeds of a darker vision that would emerge out of the very counterculture that the Beatles and their music helped create. Thus, even as their music attracted adoring fans, it also enticed the murderous ambitions of Charles Manson; and though the Beatles may have inspired others to form bands, their own failed hopes ultimately led to their breakup. The disillusionment with the sixties, and the hopes associated with the group, would many years later culminate in the assassination of John Lennon and the attempted slaying of George Harrison by deranged and obsessive fans. In this incisive examination, author Kevin Courrier (Dangerous Kitchen: the Subversive World of Zappa, Randy Newman's American Dreams) examines how the Fab Four, through their astonishing music and comically rebellious personalities, created the promise of an inclusive culture built on the principles of pleasure and fulfillment. By taking us through their richly inventive catalogue, Courrier illustrates how the Beatles' startling impact on popular culture built a bond with audiences that was so strong, people today continue to either cling nostalgically to it, or struggle - and often struggle violently - to escape its influence.

He collected beautiful things. Rare things. Ripped them out of their natural environment and preserved them in all of their dead splendor. The problem was I wasn't beautiful. I was all of the hideous and ugly realities of the world packaged into one broken human being. He came to kill me. That was his business. Death. He ripped me out of my natural environment, the prison I'd created, and locked me away with all of his beautiful dead things. I hated him. I still hate him. But if I was given the choice and the ability to leave this cage, come back to life, I'd stay dead. In all of my hideous splendor. Because my murderer can only possess dead things. And I can only be possessed by someone more broken and ugly than me.