This is a story of Africa at its most cruel and tender moments. It is a story of violence set against the breathtaking beauty of Nyanga; that is not its real name, but those who were there will know the location. If I Should Die is not about black against white, but of resistance to change and the righting of past wrongs. It is about a war men know they cannot win, but fight anyway, because it's their job. The fight becomes personalized between two combatants who represent the best each side has to offer. Sergeant Wilson is severely wounded and taken away for interrogation. When the injured man's fiancée tries to find him, she must make tough decisions in the name of love. Although this action-packed story set in Africa is fiction, most of it did happen. Author Tom Edwards was born in Hampshire, England. He served six years in the Fleet Air Arm branch of the Royal Navy. He then worked several years as an artist before moving to Southern Africa, where he was a freelance newspaper reporter and then a mining engineer in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, finally settling in what was then Rhodesia. During the Rhodesian conflict, he joined the reserve branch of the security forces, serving on border patrol.

MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING SUSPENSE. WINNER of the 7th Annual Beverly Hills Book Awards® for Political Thriller. 12th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards Finalist for New FictionReaders' Favorite Award Winner for General FictionLiterary Titan Gold Book Award IndieReader's Best Reviewed Books of the Month/May"Laura A. Zubulake's very human players, living, loving, lying and dying in her viscerally enthralling SLAY THE DRAGON ...." - IndieReader Book Review "A tension-filled plot from the get-go, Zubulake's fictional Latin-American-ish setting lends plausibility to the ubiquitous corruption connected with opioids and the problems associated with people's efforts to solve societal ills once and for all.... Kudos to Zubulake for producing Slay the Dragon, a gripping and provocative read." - Feathered Quill Book ReviewTHREE 5-STAR RATINGS FROM READERS' FAVORITES Slay the Dragon is a gripping and provocative political suspense story. Set in a lush Latin American atmosphere, the novel explores how political intrigue and corruption feed into social ills and how leaders exploit these conflicts to cling to power. Artfully using fiction, the author exposes readers to the complexity of the opioid crisis and its impact on society. The protagonist César Rosada is determined to effect social change for the working class of his country, and right decades of corruption, crime, drugs, and misguided economic policies. He anticipates resistance from those with power and vested interests, but finds himself confronted with a new challenge--America's opioid crisis. César's dreams for his people become entangled in the secrets and conspiracies of those around him. He is conflicted, and ultimately pursues a course of action that for some is morally ambiguous but keeps readers wondering if it is possible to slay the dragon?

The setting for No Greater Freedom encompasses South Africa and those East African countries as far up as Kenya. Some of the action takes place in the Comores and the Maldive Islands and parts of Asia. Police investigations are initiated after the discovery that weapons are being stockpiled in various townships in and around Natal. It is suspected that moves are afoot in the Zulu nation to separate from the Republic and create a separate homeland. The savage killing of a police investigator in the Cape Town dock area throws suspicion on an ancient tramping passenger ship, the SS Galatea. Steve Konig, a detective inspector, joins the ship hoping to find evidence that would prove that the ship was being used to deliver the weapons from somewhere further north. Unknown to Steve, another detective, Francis Mackenzie, a very black African, has initiated his own investigation into a poaching racket operating in the game reserve near the Serengeti Plain to the south of Kenya - the two investigations are destined to merge. The story involves Pat Ellis, a minister in the government department of Internal Security, who operates a wide network of corruption. A man with appalling sexual appetites who terrorises his female servants; his beautiful secretary, Julie, who in all innocence becomes involved in his evil plans, and Jake and his crew on the yacht Arcturus who smuggle drugs from Malaysia and Columbia and deliver them to Pat's network operating in the African townships. It involves the crew of the yacht Epicure, Eric, Jason, Beppy and Jane who are lured on board Arcturus, where the men are murdered and the women raped and abused in the foulest manner; and of Jane, who escapes and exacts her vengeance. This is a story in which a beautiful woman gives her life to save the man she loves. It is a story of Zulu aspirations; corruption in high places; cruelty and perversion. It reaches into the depths of depravity and soars into the heights of love and sacrifice. It is a story of Africa. Tom Edwards was born in Hampshire, England, where he spent his early years. After completing his education he served for six years in the Fleet Air Arm branch of the Royal Navy. Leaving the service he made his living for several years as an artist before moving to Southern Africa, where he worked as a free-lance news reporter for various newspapers and then as an engineer on various mines in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, finally settling in what was then Rhodesia. During the Rhodesian conflict he joined the reserve branch of the security forces where he served on border patrol and in the Marine Division. It was there that he acquired much of the material for his first book 'If I Should Die'. The war being lost, depending on which side you were on, he and a friend bought a thirty-foot boat in England and sailed around the world for four years; a trip bedevilled by pirates and hurricanes. They were finally shipwrecked off the coast of New Zealand and had to work there for a year to repair the boat. They carried on to Australia where Tom's partner left him to return home. Tom continued on his own to South Africa and eventually back to Australia where he became an Australian citizen. His latest adventure was to walk from John O'Groats, in the north of Scotland to Land's End in the south of England, a distance of 1440km, which took him forty-six days to complete. Tom has now retired to Lake Macquarie where he enjoys writing, painting and walking. His first two books, "If I Should Die" and "No Greater Freedom" were written under the pseudonym of Tom Hampshire in the hope of preserving his anonymity, however at the insistence of his family his later books, including a factual account of his circumnavigation in a thirty foot boat were under his correct name.

Paul and Angelina are old friends who dated in college, briefly, years ago, and recently reconnected via email. During their correspondence, they realized that they both regretted not taking up with each other back then, especially given their difficult and tumultuous first marriages after college.

When Angelina is killed, she is offered a choice of what to do next and opts to have both of them return to when she and Paul first arrived at college and do it over again ... while remembering what happened to them over the years. They make many changes in the way they live their lives and find true happiness together. Although they don't repeat those mistakes they made before, they definitely find new ones to experience and explore.

The Ballards live in the shadow of July Mountain. They are one step shy of overcoming the taint of poverty dogging the family since the Great Depression. During the excess of the modern 1980s, the Tennessee Valley still harbors a passing respect for the unexplainable and superstition. Roots cling to family trees like tendrils that tangle and tear to claim, not just birthrights, but bloodrights. Folks tend to die around Little Debbie Ballard. She struggles to make sense of a world where the unspoken past and prejudice collide, where truth is no longer as simple as Daddy's word, and cruel intentions transcend generations. Debbie must face the insidious legacy that haunts the women of her family, one by one. How does a family escape a past that refuses to die?

“Readers will be transfixed by this novel” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Daniela Machados can run. She’s the track star of Bronx City and an ace student, but that isn’t enough for a nope like her to get out of the barrio.

The Orderist movement has spawned a society that rewards those who supposedly possess “merit,” which includes America’s wealthiest. Manhattan has become the capital of the forty-nine Orderist-led states, while California suffers under an economic embargo. Cities such as Manhattan have become cocoons where the so called “highborn” enjoy the pleasures of farm-grown food and private parks, while their outwardly perfect children are protected by floating nanny-like drones that follow them everywhere.

Daniela has grown up fighting for the chance to attend college beyond the desperation of Bronx City. The chance to attend the elite Tuck School—a place where even the highborn struggle to obtain a spot—is too great an opportunity to ignore. But what do the richies really want from her?

Daniela is thrust into a world very different than the one she expected, a place where both treachery and honor are camouflaged behind beautiful faces. Intrigue and peril soon engulf her, and Daniela learns those at society’s apex will stop at nothing to preserve their so-called order, but their enemies are no less ruthless. Betrayal is everywhere, but it is a girl from Bronx City who holds the future in her hands. Daniela may have a chance to change the world, if it does not change her first.

Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as the novel to revitalize the dystopian genre, Age of Order has the atmosphere of Blade Runner, the intrigue of Orphan Black and the emotional struggle of Slum Dog Millionaire. Grab it.

"[T]he engaging characters, suspenseful storyline and expert world building will keep readers entertained and spellbound." --RT Book Reviews

2016 Lyra Award Winner - Best Young Adult Novel
2017 Los Angeles Book Festival - Best Science Fiction Novel

During this worst of times, Alison Hayes must discover her strength and determination and a powerful drive to do something better.

When Alison Hayes walks into her storm-darkened trailer the afternoon of her 16th birthday, she has no idea it will be the beginning of a year like no other: Her mother loses her job again, the most stable man they've ever had in their lives is looking for the nearest exit, and her best friend is dating the prom queen. She can't remember the last time anything good had happened to her. If the rails still passed through town, she would definitely be on the wrong side, always looking across the tracks to everyone else who has it so much better than she.

Dirt. Trash. The words have followed her through her life in her tattered, rust-stained jeans. She longs to understand her mother--lost and broken, driven by her addictions and by her losses--and to reconcile that reality with the memory of who her mother was before. In the chaos of their one-acre in the world, Alison strives for sanity, forging a path through the wreckage into the light.

She is alone and must learn to stand alone, or she will be swept by the same undercurrents of self-defeat that took her mother so many years ago.

Set on the rocky and at times unforgiving coast of Maine, Stephen Russell Payne’s emotionally powerful debut novel, Cliff Walking, shares a poignant tale of loss and love that weaves together the lives of three desperate people who struggle mightily to find a way to save each other.

Kate Johnson is a recovering addict from California, married to a cunning, cruel man named Leland Johnson. When she gathers the strength to escape her hellish life, she leaves with her bright, artistic twelve-year-old son, Stringer, crossing Canada as stowaways on a freight train. They eventually find their way to Winter’s Cove, a provincial town on the coast of Maine.

Francis Monroe is a famous Maine seascape artist whose wife died windsurfing on the bay in front of their bungalow the year before, after losing her battle with breast cancer. Emotionally paralyzed since her death, Francis has been haunted both by her loss and his subsequent inability to paint.

When Stringer appears at Francis’s bungalow, the meeting triggers events that dramatically alter the course of their lives. Thrust into a life-threatening altercation, Stringer is forced to take action, and ends up facing felony charges. As Stringer and his loved ones do battle with the local sheriff and the politically aspiring state’s attorney, the citizens of Winter’s Cove have to navigate their own deep-seated prejudices, their beliefs about family and community, and the painful necessity to reexamine justice in their town.

An intimate, probing novel that mines the healing power of hope that can grow out of shared desperation, Cliff Walking is a captivating love story that carries readers on an intense, thought-provoking journey. Both fast-paced and complex, this novel is nearly impossible to put down.