CEO Robert "Griff" Vandergrift's life-his careful, well-constructed life-is slowly beginning to unravel. His relationship with his fiancee is in the toilet and his trucking company's financial position is in jeopardy. As Griff and his business partner, Ron Bowman, fly out in a Beech Baron from California to Arizona to meet Bud Applebaum, another shareholder who now owns ten percent of the business, both are deeply concerned about the future of their company. Both, fed up with Bud's lack of straight answers and outright lies, barely make it to Tucson after their twin-engine airplane succumbs to mysterious mechanical problems. Determined to get to the bottom of their company's financial mess, Griff and Ron soon discover that Applebaum has been unscrupulous in his business dealings. Suddenly, two middle-aged, honest, and successful business owners unknowingly find themselves in the midst of a drug war waging on the border between Mexico and America, Mafia dealings, and an FBI sting. With their lives in peril, unexpected twists and turns lead Griff and Ron to a surprise ending and a new adventure."

"The bloodsucking bat, construction of bows and arrows, the punishment for adultery among the Apaches... all was grist that dropped into the industrious mill of Father Pfefferkorn's eyes, ears, and brain."—Saturday Review "To be read for enjoyment; nevertheless, the historian will find in it a wealth of information that has been shrewdly appraised, carefully sifted, and creditably related."—Catholic Historical Review "Of interest not only to the historian but to the geographer and anthropologist."—Pacific Historical Review

This book offers reflections on a daunting and controversial ethical question: How should we treat the strangers who enter this country illegally? To understand the experience of those directly confronted by this problem, Ananda Rose traveled to the Sonoran desert at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. There she gathered opinions from Minutemen, Border Patrol agents, Catholic nuns, humanitarian air workers, left-wing protestors, ranchers, and other ordinary citizens in southern Arizona. She depicts the results of these interviews as two starkly opposed ideological perspectives: that of religious activists who embrace a biblically-inspired model of hospitality that stresses love of strangers and a "borderless" compassion; and that of law enforcement, which is concerned with safety, security, and strict respect for international borders.

The array of bottles is impressive, their contents finely tuned to varied tastes. But they all share the same roots in Mesoamerica's natural bounty and human culture. The drink is tequila—more properly, mescal de tequila, the first mescal to be codified and recognized by its geographic origin and the only one known internationally by that name. In ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, Ana G. Valenzuela-Zapata, the leading agronomist in Mexico's tequila industry, and Gary Paul Nabhan, one of America's most respected ethnobotanists, plumb the myth of tequila as they introduce the natural history, economics, and cultural significance of the plants cultivated for its production. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan take you into the agave fields of Mexico to convey their passion for the century plant and its popular by-product. In the labor-intensive business of producing quality mescal, the cultivation of tequila azul is maintained through traditional techniques passed down over generations. They tell how jimadores seek out the mature agaves, strip the leaves, and remove the heavy heads from the field; then they reveal how the roasting and fermentation process brings out the flavors that cosmopolitan palates crave. Today in Oaxaca it's not unusual to find small-scale mescal-makers vending their wares in the market plaza, while in Jalisco the scale of distillation facilities found near the town of Tequila would be unrecognizable to old José Cuervo. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan trace tequila's progress from its modest beginnings to one of the world's favored spirits, tell how innovations from cross-cultural exchanges made fortunes for Cuervo and other distillers, and explain how the meteoric rise in tequila prices is due to an epidemic—one they predicted would occur—linked to the industry's cultivation of just one type of agave. The tequila industry today markets more than four hundred distinct products through a variety of strategies that heighten the liquor's mystique, and this book will educate readers about the grades of tequila, from blanco to añejo, and marks of distinction for connoisseurs who pay up to two thousand dollars for a bottle. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History will feed anyone's passion for the gift of the blue agave as it heightens their appreciation for its rich heritage.

For the westerner trouble came with the territory. Long grass valleys, merciless deserts, sheer rock cliffs, icy streams, hidden trails, dusty towns. These were the proving grounds of daily life. At any time violence could explode and on the frontier there was no avoiding its sudden terrible impact. In this collection of his stories Louis L’Amour guides us to some of these untamed places where men and women faced the challenge of survival. And for the first time, L’Amour also presents a selection of riveting scenes from western history that are every bit as exciting as his stories.

Cincinnati homicide detective and single mother Sonora Blair puts everything on the line as she battles to find justice after a multiple-murder home invasion At a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Cincinnati suburbs, widowed Police Specialist Sonora Blair and her partner, Sam Delarosa, discover the bodies of Carl Stinnet and two children. Hiding under the bed in the master bedroom is Carl’s wife, Joy. The dying mother holds her unharmed infant daughter and keeps repeating the Hail Mary, claiming “the Angel” saved them. Joy’s deathbed assertion that she saw two men and the Angel—along with differences in the victims’ manners of death—make Sonora believe there were multiple killers. Two suspects are found and arrested, but Sonora doesn’t get closure. She’s sure there was a third person in that horrific crime scene, and she can’t stop working the case, even after she’s warned to walk away. Amid concerns about her own son and daughter, and her certainty that she’ll never sleep soundly again, Sonora prepares to confront a murderer who’s about to collect on one last IOU. The Debt Collector is the 4th book in the Sonora Blair Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.