Les Standiford
In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller, dreamed of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland,...
“Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience.”—USA Today
“The narrative is as absorbing as that of any good novel—and as difficult to put down.”—Miami Herald
The author of Last Train to Paradise...
Done Deal is the first in the series featuring reluctant sleuth John Deal, a South Florida building contractor who has a penchant for stepping into the path of the wrong people. Here, Deal is struggling to rebuild the once formidable DealCo, a development company once headed by his flamboyant father Barton Deal—but little does he know that the piece of land upon which he plans to build a small apartment complex is coveted by a ruthless businessman
...This suspenseful third John Deal crime thriller from Standiford finds the Miami building contractor tangling with Chinese gangsters who are trying to move in on a scheme hatched by two Hollywood porno magnates to create X-rated films for the huge mainland Chinese market. Deal already has troubles enough?his wife, Janice, has sunk into a deep depression over the serious burns she suffered in last year's Raw Deal, and a close friend has apparently
..."John Deal is such a rich creation, full of anger, courage and doubt, that you may have to remind yourself that you're reading fiction."—Chicago Tribune
John Deal's life is finally coming together—he is reunited with his lovely wife, they have a beautiful baby, and DealCo, his Miami construction business, is booming with post-Hurricane Andrew contracts rolling in. The future looks bright...until the night that his house is
...Its tough being a small-time hustler in Key West, FL. When this hustler is being beaten by a cop, John Deal steps in to stop it, but it is only a temporary rescue: the hustler turns up dead only two days later. The cops are claiming ignorance and the locals arent saying a word. Could the dead man be somehow connected to a seventy-year-old tale of piracy, murder, and greed? No one knows what really happened on that storm-swept night. But something
...Life looks good for John Deal. A new contract promises to put the family business in the black and restore its reputation, tarnished by suicide, the suicide of John's father. Getting out from under Barton Deal's shady past is tough. The new contract is linked to old ties — like the multi-million dollar pact Barton made with Miami mobster Lucky Rhodes decades ago. Now both men are gone, the money has vanished, and Lucky's son wants it back.
...In 1814, British troops invaded Washington, consuming President Madison’s hastily abandoned dinner before setting his home and the rest of the city ablaze. The White House still bears scorch and soot marks on its foundation stones. It was only after this British lesson in “hard war,” designed to terrorize, that Americans overcame their resistance to the idea of Washington...
Millions have sat under the "big top," watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the...