When an undercover op goes wrong, John Bolt loses his partner—and his pantsIt's cold in New York when federal narcotics agents Bolt and Kramer come to meet Angel Jarín, a dealer with a big mouth and a bigger supply. Masquerading as Detroit pushers, the agents are close to arranging a buy when Angel turns the tables on them. Three hoods dressed as cops ambush Bolt and Kramer in an alley, forcing them to strip naked and hand over their cash. Bolt realizes something's wrong about the time his knees begin to freeze.Blowing their cover would mean death, so the narcs play along even when the thugs take Kramer. They leave Bolt shivering in the alley, with forty-eight hours to collect a $75,000 ransom. As his numb fingers pick up his overcoat, Bolt decides the hoods are right. Somebody's gonna pay.

When terrorists butcher his sensei, a samurai takes vengeance in bloodOn leave in Tokyo, American GI Robert Sand is shot trying to protect an old man from a quartet of drunk American soldiers. As Sand passes out, the old man springs on his tormenters, beating them senseless with frail, wrinkled fists. He is Master Konuma, keeper of the ancient secrets of the samurai, and Sand is about to become his newest pupil. Over the next seven years, the American learns martial arts, swordplay, and stealth, becoming not just the first black man to ever take the oath of the samurai, but the strongest fighter Konuma has ever trained. One night, two dozen terrorists ambush the dojo, slaughtering Konuma and his students as the first step in a terrifying assault on world peace. Though he cannot save his sensei, Sand escapes with his life and a gnawing hunger for vengeance. All he has is his sword, but his sword is all he needs.

Insane with grief, Sand vows to destroy a terrorist cabal Ever since he took the vows of the samurai, Robert Sand has been ready to die. But now, for the first time in his life, he has a reason to live. Her name is Ann, and he sits beside her, awaiting takeoff for Geneva, when terrorists seize the plane. Holding guns on the passengers and crew, they douse the cabin in liquor and light a fire that will burn until it reaches the gas tanks. The terrorists flee as smoke fills the plane, but one lingers—a Japanese killer with a vendetta against the black samurai. He puts two bullets in Ann's back, and even Sand's lightning reflexes are not fast enough to save her. The Sword of Allah, the most feared terrorist organization on the planet, planned the attack. Its next operation threatens to turn the Cold War up to a boil, but they made one foolish mistake. Robert Sand is angry, and will have his revenge.

A meticulous account of the greatest drug scourge the country has ever seenBefore crack, there was cocaine. In 1972, New Yorkers bought more powdered cocaine than heroin, and they paid dearly for it. Pimps, rock stars, UN delegates, and high school students all turned on with snow. Some used casually, and some threw their lives away for its fleeting high. The drug's devotees showed their allegiance with a golden coke spoon necklace—a sign of the wealth required to maintain a habit when the drug sold for as much as seventy-five dollars a hit. They used it to party, to work, and to have sex. They snorted it, shot it, and rubbed it on their gums. And more and more, they killed and died for the sake of the priceless white powder.In this staggering exposé, Marc Olden gets to the heart of New York's cocaine underworld, painting an exhaustive picture of the drug's effects on society—from the highest highs to the lowest lows.

To break the mafia, Bolt must face his murderous ex-partnerNarcotics agents aren't supposed to ride horses. But today John Bolt is tailing a drug courier in Central Park, and in two feet of snow, horseback is the only way to ride. When he hears the pop-pop-pop of a .32 pistol, he knows his man is dead. Bolt charges to the scene, and the gunmen open fire. They kill his horse, and Bolt avenges the animal. As one of the killers bleeds into unconsciousness, he says they were sent by Apache.Apache. Codename for Paris Whitman, a former top man in Bolt's department who flipped to the other side. Now a mafia enforcer, Apache is working his way up the mob ladder by targeting his old colleagues. Once, he and Bolt were partners. Now they fight each other in a duel to the death that will determine whether the trickle of drugs into this country stops, or becomes a flood.

On the verge of death from two gunshot wounds, Bolt vows revengeThey call him Black Beauty, because he is the most gorgeous thief the drug world has ever seen. Where some are content to make a living ripping off dime-bag hustlers, Black Beauty steals from big-time dealers, taking profits from international cartels to keep himself rich, well-dressed, and smiling. His latest score netted him $850,000, along with the twenty-two kilos of cocaine the money was intended to buy. To get it he killed four men, and left one narcotics agent to bleed to death in a parking lot. Before long, Black Beauty will wish he finished the job. John Bolt is too tough to let a pretty boy kill him. As soon as he's strong enough to lift a .45, he's coming after Black Beauty—even if he has to take vengeance from a wheelchair.

Edgar Award Finalist: When his source is murdered, Harker knows he's on the right track.Finally, Harker has a break in the nuclear story. There is a vast conspiracy inside the government to keep the dangers of nuclear energy from the public, and now he has a source on the inside. Anna Alexander, an employee at a nuclear firm, has documents that will blow the industry wide open—if she can make it to her rendezvous with Harker alive. Her employers are poisoning her with plutonium, and when she calls Harker, she is nearly dead from radiation sickness. By the time he makes it to Nevada, she's gone.The car wreck looks like an accident, but the papers she was bringing him are nowhere to be found. They killed Anna to keep her from talking to the press—so just imagine what they'll do to the reporter.

At Wellington's, it's OK to break hearts, but never break your reservationSeven nights a week, the most beautiful people in Manhattan crowd around the bar at a dimly lit restaurant on Second Avenue. Fueled by drugs, liquor, and jealousy, the singles crowd has made Wellington's the hottest spot in town. Its gorgeous young patrons can go through several partners just before closing time, and the spectacle of "the hunt" ensures that the restaurant's tables are never empty. People don't come to Wellington's for the food, but for a close-up view of romantic blood sport.David James, owner and operator, runs the show. Around him swirls a hurricane of swingers, players, and tramps, but David stays cool. In this bar, the only rule is to never sleep with someone who's got more troubles than you. But the people who crowd around at last call have so many problems, it's impossible to keep count.

A Japanese serial killer terrorizes New York, opposed only by a karate-savvy copIn the dojo, Manny Decker learned that training, focus, and cold discipline could make a man more dangerous than any weapon. His skill with his fists was useful in the US Marines, and served him even better afterwards, as a cop walking a tough New York beat. Since he became a detective, Decker hasn't found much use for his hand-to-hand skills, but his mental toughness has proved invaluable as he navigates the narrow line of an Internal Affairs investigator. Keeping an eye on other cops, he has found, means risking his life inside and outside the precinct house.Decker also knows that a mastery of karate can be used for evil as well as good. Investigating a corrupt security company, Decker finds himself on the trail of a psychopathic killer who can snap a windpipe with one chop of his palm. Only karate can stop him, and when the final confrontation occurs, karate is all Decker will have.

To escape jail, a pusher takes out a contract on everyone in Bolt's departmentThe Delgado cocaine operation is more than a business. It's an empire, supplied by a direct line to the coca plants of South America. Delgado's soldiers are not common hoods, but a cadre of teenage boys chosen for their loyalty—and beauty. But now one of his lovers has failed him, allowing crack narcotics agent John Bolt to build a case against the kingpin. Delgado will handle his legal defense the same way he rules his evil empire: with murder.There are nine names on the list Delgado gives the killer. Eight are witnesses against him, whose deaths will assure Delgado's freedom. The ninth is Bolt's, who will die for turning Delgado's boy. But Bolt serves justice as ruthlessly as Delgado serves evil, and the dealer will find this narc has a kill list of his own.

To fulfill an ancient rite of vengeance, two druids descend on New York CityOut for kicks on a dull summer night, a few Puerto Rican boys wander Central Park. Drunk, high, and bored they hack at an old oak tree, and they don't notice the white-haired couple appear behind them. Murmuring in an ancient tongue, the couple attacks the boys to save the oak. By the time the police arrive, two boys have been slashed to death, and their right hands cut from their bodies.Rupert and Rowena Comfort are druids, keepers of a religion that is older than civilization itself. For thousands of years they have lived in secret in the wilds of England, until the day that five Americans happen on their village and steal the book of shadows—a witch's tome passed down by the druids for millennia. Rupert and Rowena will kill to save the book, starting with a spell whose recipe calls for the blood from two severed hands.

With a handful of agents, Bolt takes on the crown prince of European smugglingTwo French businessmen come to the United States to arrange an export deal. Normally the federal government would have no interest, but these Frenchmen are Corsican, and their product is the finest heroin in the world. For months the crime syndicate overseen by Count Napoleon Bonaparte Lonzu has stockpiled its smack, creating a worldwide shortage and sending demand through the roof. Now it is time to open the floodgates, and dump a colossal shipment of white heroin onto the United States. But the deal goes sour from the very start. Lanzu’s lieutenants run into John Bolt, a narcotics agent who makes the toughest Corsicans wilt. He only has a handful of operatives in his critically underfunded anti-drug detail, but Bolt will crack the Corsican syndicate if he has to cross the Atlantic to do it. Count Lanzu may have an army, but next to a determined American cop, every Napoleon looks small.

Facing a long jail sentence, a woman takes a dangerous job for the New York Police DepartmentLydia Constanza is not cut out for prison. Since she came to the United States from Cuba, she's twice been convicted as an accomplice to a violent crime, and done two short stints in jail. The second time, her nerves went, and she vowed never to return. Back on the outside and living in New York with a five-year-old daughter, Lydia and her boyfriend hold up a check-cashing place, tripping the silent alarm and landing, once again, in handcuffs. To stay near her child, this three-time loser offers up the only thing she has left: information.Harlem has become a dangerous place to wear a badge. Two cops have just been killed at a traffic stop, and Walter F. X. Forster is not going to lose any more men. Informants like Lydia are the lieutenant's last chance to stop the bleeding. It's the bad guys' turn to die - if his snitches stay alive long enough to tell the cops who to kill.