In this action-packed, twisty, and fast-paced continuation of the PI Clifford Dee thriller series, private investigator Clifford Dee is back with his team, this time in Northern Virginia, working with his former Army Rangers commander, Doyle Hamilton, in Washington D.C. After a U.S. Senator was murdered, Doyle was chosen to run in a special election to fill his office. To qualify, he must step down from his army command and decides to hand the division over to a former military rival of Clifford's, Kevin Burr, who shuts Clifford out from work out of spite. While his teammate, Bailey, takes on a minor copyright case involving a budding rap star, they uncover connections between a government department that Burr used to run and another famous rap artist, Dark Fenix, who was about to tour overseas as a cover to smuggle weapons into Africa for Burr. Things worsen when he also finds a connection between Burr and a ring of assassins for hire. Clifford discloses this information to Doyle, which makes things worse and Clifford's team is targeted. He must now work with Special Agent Sims of the FBI to continue investigating the weapons dealing, find who is running the assassins, and dig up evidence to incriminate Burr...all without getting killed. Clifford's team gets Dark Fenix's Africa tour canceled and Burr is in the hot-seat because he cannot deliver the weapons to the African warlords as promised. Stretched too thin, Burr finds himself in a deadly bind. Clifford and Sims take on the assassins, resulting in one of them ending up in the hospital and an office fire being set to cover up evidence. More assassins are sent to finish the job, which turns into an all-out brawl, but they manage to escape. The assassins' leader gets the drop on the team and plans to force Clifford to watch his team die, one by one. This time there doesn't seem to be any escape... Fans of action thrillers and crime suspense like the TV series Burn Notice are sure to enjoy this mile-a-minute story of government conspiracy, car chases, lethal encounters, and humorous situations.

In this page-turning suspense action novel, private investigator and military veteran Clifford Dee finds himself in deep trouble. After accepting jobs from an unrelenting local Mafia boss, Clifford is promoted from PI to hitman...without the option to refuse. His envious arch-rival will do anything to take Clifford down a peg and earn back the favor of the mob...even if it means paying the ultimate price. To find a way out of the Mafia's clutches, Clifford must make friendships and alliances in the most unlikely of places... and hopefully escape with his life intact. Winner: Onlinebookclub C/T/H/M book of the year for 2021 Editorial Reviews: "...Crime thriller fans...will find this a winning choice!" -Booklife "Lots of dark humor among the cast of unique characters make Clifford's War a treat." - Independent Book Review "...an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride!" - Indies Today "...an immersive story that will keep you turning page after page!" - Reedsy Discovery "...a fast-paced thriller!" -OnlineBookclub "...powered by thrills!" - Booklife "...much like an action movie." - Independent Book Review "...so graphic and realistic, you'll smell the tang of blood and flinch at the crack of gunshots!" - Indies Today "...this is one of the better books that I have reviewed on Reedsy!" - Reedsy Discovery "...a suspenseful and engaging novel that is difficult to put down!" -OnlineBookclub "...fast-paced, hard-edged thriller!" -Booklife "...the supporting cast seems real and each character is memorable." - Independent Book Review "...wonderfully violent book!" - Indies Today "...an excellent book that has a great storyline and detailed descriptions that put you in the middle of the action!" - Reedsy Discovery "...unexpected twists that kept me guessing until the end!" -OnlineBookclub

This study of Cold War politics explores the attitudes of William Stuart Symington, a consummate Cold Warrior and Democratic senator from Missouri. The book focuses on his transition from being an avid supporter of the military and the CIA to his dovish position on the Vietnam War, as he questioned all foreign commitments, as well as military and CIA budgets. His ideas influenced presidential administrations ranging from Truman's to Nixon's. He exposed covert activity associated with the Vietnam War and worked to restore the constitutional balance between the executive and legislative branches of the government. Symington held several appointive positions within the Truman administration where he was instrumental in the unification of the armed services: he served as the first Secretary of the Air Force, a post responsible for the conduct of the Berlin Blockade. As a senator, he was a strong voice for the military, and he openly criticized President Eisenhower for his defense policies and meager budgets. A vociferous advocate of the big bomber and ICBMs, he helped establish the missile gap myth, providing the Democratic Party with a key issue in the 1960 presidential race. This well-documented study highlights the importance of and the interplay among significant personalities, circumstances, and public policy at a key point in our nation's history.

Along rivers in Bali, small groups of farmers meet regularly in water temples to manage their irrigation systems. They have done so for a thousand years. Over the centuries, water temple networks have expanded to manage the ecology of rice terraces at the scale of whole watersheds. Although each group focuses on its own problems, a global solution nonetheless emerges that optimizes irrigation flows for everyone. Did someone have to design Bali's water temple networks, or could they have emerged from a self-organizing process? Perfect Order--a groundbreaking work at the nexus of conservation, complexity theory, and anthropology--describes a series of fieldwork projects triggered by this question, ranging from the archaeology of the water temples to their ecological functions and their place in Balinese cosmology. Stephen Lansing shows that the temple networks are fragile, vulnerable to the cross-currents produced by competition among male descent groups. But the feminine rites of water temples mirror the farmers' awareness that when they act in unison, small miracles of order occur regularly, as the jewel-like perfection of the rice terraces produces general prosperity. Much of this is barely visible from within the horizons of Western social theory. The fruit of a decade of multidisciplinary research, this absorbing book shows that even as researchers probe the foundations of cooperation in the water temple networks, the very existence of the traditional farming techniques they represent is threatened by large-scale development projects.

Volumes 1-5 have series title: History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Hugo Award Winner: In backwoods Wisconsin, an ageless hermit welcomes alien visitors—and foresees the end of humanity . . . Enoch Wallace is not like other humans. Living a secluded life in the backwoods of Wisconsin, he carries a nineteenth-century rifle and never seems to age—a fact that has recently caught the attention of prying government eyes. The truth is, Enoch is the last surviving veteran of the American Civil War and, for close to a century, he has operated a secret way station for aliens passing through on journeys to other stars. But the gifts of knowledge and immortality that his intergalactic guests have bestowed upon him are proving to be a nightmarish burden, for they have opened Enoch’s eyes to humanity’s impending destruction. Still, one final hope remains for the human race . . . though the cure could ultimately prove more terrible than the disease. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, Way Station is a magnificent example of the fine art of science fiction as practiced by a revered Grand Master. A cautionary tale that is at once ingenious, evocative, and compassionately human, it brilliantly supports the contention of the late, great Robert A. Heinlein that “to read science-fiction is to read Simak.”

For more than forty years, Clark Clifford was Washington's consummate Democratic power broker - attorney and adviser to the nation's most influential leaders. His 1991 memoir, Counsel to the President, looked back on a remarkable career of public service. But the very year his autobiography was published, the Clifford legend began to crumble. Caught up in the scandal that destroyed the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the eighty-five-year-old Clifford was arrested on charges relating to his law firm's involvement with the outlaw bank. Though his case never went to trial, and his protege, Robert Altman, was found not guilty, Clifford's reputation was in ruins. How could such a man come to such an end? What happened? And why? In Friends in High Places, a noted investigative reporter and a chief investigator in the Senate inquiry on BCCI provide the answers. Drawing on original documents, more than a hundred interviews with Clifford's friends and adversaries, and fifty hours of interviews with Clifford himself, the authors reveal the drive and shrewdness that led Clifford to the pinnacle of power - and demonstrate convincingly that his involvement with BCCI was no aberration, but the bitter fruit of seeds planted at the beginning.