

The Thursday Murder Club is the first book in Richard Osman’s series of mystery crime novels. It follows four elderly friends living in a retirement village in England as they attempt to solve local crimes and mysteries. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron form the Thursday Murder Club, meeting in the village hall each week to discuss unsolved cases. When a suspicious death occurs in their village, the four friends decide to investigate and uncover a series of dark secrets and conspiracies that had been hidden away. With the help of a local detective, they are able to follow the clues and piece together the puzzle, ultimately leading them to the murderer. Along the way, the group discovers a lot about themselves as well as about their village, and the reader is taken on a thrilling journey of suspense and intrigue as the mystery unfolds. The Thursday Murder Club is a gripping and fast-paced novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.  As the group looks into these murders, Osman also deals humorously and thoughtfully with things like aging, grief, dementia, and so forth. It makes for an entertaining read that gives it a little extra compared to your typical genre mystery.

The Thursday Murder Club: (The Thursday Murder Club 1)

To Have and to Hold is the story of an English soldier, Ralph Percy, turned Virginian explorer in colonial Jamestown. Ralph buys a wife for himself - a girl named Jocelyn Leigh - little knowing that she is the escaping ward of King James I, fleeing a forced marriage to Lord Carnal. Jocelyn hardly loves Ralph - indeed, she seems to abhor him. Carnal, Jocelyn''s husband-to-be eventually comes to Jamestown, not knowing that Ralph Percy and Jocelyn Leigh are man and wife. Lord Carnal attempts to kidnap Jocelyn several times and eventually follows Ralph, Jocelyn, and their two companions - Jeremy Sparrow, the Separatist minister, and Diccon, Ralph''s servant - as they escape from the King''s orders to arrest Ralph and carry Jocelyn back to England. The boat that they are in, however, crashes on a desert island, but they are accosted by pirates, who, after a short struggle, agree to take Ralph as their captain, after he pretends to be the pirate "Kirby". The pirates gleefully play on with Ralph''s masquerade, until he refuses to allow them to rape and pillage those on board Spanish ships. The play is up when the pirates see an English ship off the coast of Florida. Ralph refuses to fire upon it, knowing that it carries the new Virginian governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, but the pirates open fire, and Jeremy Sparrow, before the English ship can be destroyed, purposefully crashes the ship into a reef. The pirates are all killed, but the Englishmen (and woman) are rescued by the Governor''s ship. Ralph is put on trial on board the ship as a pirate, after Lord Carnal tells the Governor that he ordered the destruction of the ship, but Jocelyn, having come to love Ralph, speaks for him. Her words are so persuasive that the Governor believes her and frees Ralph. They return to Virginia, though Ralph is forced to remain in a gaol - King''s orders. Ralph is lured into a trap, though, by Lord Carnal and is subsequently captured by Indians - but not before putting up a fight and seeing Lord Carnal terribly wounded. The brother of Pocahontas, the Indian Nantauquas, rescues him and Diccon, but only to inform them that all the Virginian Indians plan to massacre the Jamestown settlers. As they are on their way back to Jamestown, Diccon is shot and killed by a hostile Indian, and Ralph is left alone to brave his way back. Returning to the colony, he gives his information, only to be told that Jocelyn had made her way to the forest in search of him after his absence was noticed, with Jeremy Sparrow, and that they had not been found. It is also discovered that Lord Carnal has taken poison and will die within a week. Jamestown is saved, thanks to Ralph''s almost-too-late warning, and after things are stabilized, Ralph goes in search of Jocelyn and the minister. After a long and seemingly fruitless search, Nantauquas himself, though he had turned traitor, leads Ralph to where Jocelyn is staying. The two are reunited, and at the end of the story intend to go to England, where Jocelyn''s lands have been restored to her and they can finally live in peace. To Have and to Hold was revised and edited by Josh and Sarah Wean for the four-hundredth anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. It is sold in this edition by the Christian company, Vision Forum Inc.

To Have and to Hold

The character Marlowe is stranded in Brindisi during political strife in Greece, and he is eventually conveyed to Mavrodaphne by the boatman Christ who serves Rumanades, a highly successful businessman who owns Mavrodaphne. He is a disillusioned schoolteacher akin to Evelyn Waugh''s Decline and Fall. Shortly after arriving on the island, he meets Gordon and Walsh, both characters from Durrell''s Pied Piper of Lovers. In the third chapter, Rumanades'' personal history is narrated, leading up through his display of fireworks on Mavrodaphne. This includes his capitalist successes and his acquisition of his fortune, as well as his failed marriage that his wealth could not control. The fourth and fifth chapters have Marlowe moving into one of Rumanades'' villas on the island and meeting the remaining characters, Francis and Fonvisin. The narrative then turns to Marlowe''s interests in Quietism. The subsequent chapters focus heavily on the individual characters in their own narratives: Walsh, Fonvisin, and Francis. Returning to the present moment on Mavrodaphne, the tenth chapter, "The Music," narrates a gramophone concert leading to an evening spent on a high cliff, with Francis, Marlowe, and Walsh in conversation. Marlowe then begins to write his treatise on Quietism, and Francis is called away from the island back to London, for which she is given a farewell celebration. However, before she can leave, Rumanades dies of a fever brought on by an evening spent in poor weather thinking of his lost wife. One of the priests dies on the same night, and this throws the small community of expatriates into turmoil as they must vacate the island, putting an end to their escape from financial crises, revolution, and the impending World War.

Panic Spring

On the demonic Twelfth Plane the demon Zdim is drafted for a year''s indentured servitude on the human Prime Plane, the demon society having an agreement to provide service to human sorcerers in return for supplies of iron, a raw material it desperately needs. Zdim is duly summoned to the Prime Plane by the sorcerer Dr. Maldivius of Novaria. There he strives to do his duty, but his demonic literal-mindedness hampers him. Assigned to protect the Sibylline Sapphire from any trespassers, he promptly eats Maldivius'' apprentice Grax when the latter intrudes. Similar misadventures result in the disgusted Maldivius selling his contract, and the demon is passed from one master to another, from circus master Bagardo to the rich widow Roska of Ir, all the while doing his level best to figure out what the muddled humans truly wish of him. Against all odds he becomes a hero when he recruits aid for the city-state of Ir after it discounts intelligence of an imminent invasion by the cannibal Paaluans. Returning to his home plane early and with extra iron, he resolves never again to leave the comforts of the Twelfth Plane — until he realizes how dull it is compared with the picturesque insanity of the human realm... By internal chronology, The Fallible Fiend is the second story in the Novarian series, coming after the short story "The Emperor''s Fan", which is set centuries before the others, and prior to the Reluctant King trilogy. (The Paaluan invasion of Ir is mentioned in the second and third books of the trilogy, The Clocks of Iraz and The Unbeheaded King, respectively, as an event occurring either recently or some generations past.) Note: The name of Ir, the subterrranean city-state where much the plot takes place, is simply the Hebrew word for "city" (עיר).

The Fallible Fiend

In the Sandleford warren, Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer, receives a frightening vision of his warren''s imminent destruction. When he and his brother Hazel fail to convince their chief rabbit of the need to evacuate, they set out on their own with a small band of rabbits to search for a new home, barely eluding the Owsla, the warren''s military caste. The travelling group of rabbits find themselves following the leadership of Hazel, previously an unimportant member of the warren. They travel through dangerous territory, with Bigwig and Silver, both former Owsla, as the strongest rabbits among them. Fiver''s visions promise a safe place in which to settle, and the group eventually finds Watership Down, an ideal location to set up their new warren. They are soon reunited with Holly and Bluebell, also from the Sandleford Warren, who reveal that Fiver''s vision was true and the entire warren was destroyed by humans. Although Watership Down is a peaceful habitat, Hazel realises there are no does (female rabbits), thus making the future of their new home uncertain. With the help of a seagull named Kehaar, they locate a nearby warren, Efrafa, which is overcrowded and has many does. Hazel sends a small emissary to Efrafa to present their request for does. While waiting for the group to return, Hazel and Pipkin successfully raid the nearby Nuthanger Farm to rescue a group of hutch rabbits there, returning with two does and a buck. When the emissary returns, Hazel and his rabbits learn Efrafa is a police state led by the despotic General Woundwort; Hazel''s rabbits barely return alive. However, the group does manage to identify an Efrafan doe named Hyzenthlay who wants to leave the warren and can recruit other does to join. Hazel and Bigwig devise a plan to rescue the group of rabbits from Efrafa to join them on Watership Down. The Efrafan escapees start their new life on Watership Down, but soon Woundwort''s army arrives to attack the Watership Down warren. Through Bigwig''s bravery and loyalty and Hazel''s ingenuity, the Watership Down rabbits defeat Woundwort. The story''s epilogue tells the reader of how Hazel, dozing in his burrow one "chilly, blustery morning in March" many years later, is visited by the rabbit folk hero El-ahrairah, who invites Hazel to join his Owsla. Leaving his friends and no-longer-needed body behind, Hazel departs Watership Down with El-ahrairah, "running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom."

Watership Down

After the death of Jenny, his wife, and failure of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Forrest and his son find a way to stumble through life and history. As in the first book, Gump stumbles through historical American events through the 1980s and early 1990s. On the first page, Forrest Gump tells readers "Don''t never let nobody make a movie of your life''s story," though "Whether they get it right or wrong, it don''t matter." However, the character is not an idiot savant, as in the first book, but more similar to Tom Hanks'' "kind hearted imp". Frequent spelling and grammar mistakes, in the text, are used as a device to indicate the character''s deficient education and cognitive difficulties. The story suggests that the real-life events surrounding the film have affected Forrest''s life. Gump runs into Tom Hanks. He even goes on The David Letterman Show and attends the Academy Awards. He plays football for the New Orleans Saints, sells encyclopedias door-to-door, works on a pig farm, and helps develop the infamous New Coke. He accidentally crashes the Exxon Valdez, helps destroy the Berlin Wall, and fights in Operation Desert Storm with his friend, an orangutan named Sue (who survived a NASA mission and cannibals, with Gump, in the first book). He meets many celebrities, including Colonel Oliver North, the Ayatollah Khomeini, John Hinckley, Jim Bakker, Ivan Boesky, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Tom Hanks (who plays Forrest in the movie). Throughout the book, Jenny appears to Forrest as a guardian angel, and advises him to "listen to Lieutenant Dan." Lt. Dan frequently mentions a fondness for oysters, and oystering re-vitalizes the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

Gump and Co.

The wizard Od, a giantess who travels mysteriously, accompanied by numerous injured animals, which she heals, saved the city of Kelior, founded a school of magic there, then disappeared into the wilderness. Hundreds of years later, she appears at Brenden Vetch''s small farm, inviting him to study at her school to perfect the magic he wields over plants, and finds in them. After he makes the long journey to the city, Brenden discovers that Kelior, instead of being a bastion for learning and exploration, is fearful of unfettered magic; the king and his wizard Valoren Greye outlaw any new type of magic, which they see as a threat to Kelior''s order and safety. They want magic to be subservient to their rulership. As Brenden acclimates to his strange environment, Princess Sulys attempts to come to terms with her engagement to Valoren, a man she scarcely knows, which engagement was arranged by her father. But Valoren, and her father, take her for granted, and won''t listen to her. Among other things, she wants Valoren to know that she has some magical power. Instead of preparing for her upcoming wedding, she prefers to converse with Ceta Thiel, a historian writing about Od. Her discoveries about the wizard puzzle her and her lover, Yar Ayrwood, who works at Od''s school. Yar ventures out of the school and into the city to learn more, unintentionally involving his curious student Elver. The wizard Valoren is too preoccupied to help with his wedding arrangements: Not only is Brenden proving to be an enigma, but a new magic-user, Tyramin, and his daughter Mistral have brought a magic show to the Twilight Quarter of the city. Believing these magicians to be dangerous, Valoren commands that Tyramin and Mistral are to be investigated. As the warden for the Twilight Quarter, Arneth Pyt has to obey Valoren''s order, even as he falls in love with the mysterious Mistral. When the king and Valoren try to suppress these new magics, an uprising that they could never foresee forces change upon the static kingdom. Mistral asks the king to allow Tyramin to perform for the king in the palace. (Actually, Tyramin has been dead for some time, but Mistral has presented him by illusion at performances. Sulys gets serious about magic, and stands up to her father during the performance, arguing that the king and Valoren have not been paying attention to her, and that Mistral should be allowed to practice her magic within Kelior. Yar and Valoren return from a search for Brenden, combined with an investigation of mysterious rock-like beings in the far north, and the beings, and Brenden, come with them. Elver turns out to be Od, in disguise. Od says that she wants the school to continue, but without the restraints imposed by the king, which she has experienced as Elver. The king agrees, and magic becomes an art again, rather than a trade.

Od Magic

As the battlefield on which so many adolescent wars are waged, high school can be hell. No one knows this better than Robby Meyers, who is forced to move to south Florida in the middle of his freshman year after his father’s dies in a motorcycle accident. His older brothers Pete and Gus have no trouble making new friends and carving out spots for themselves on various athletic teams. Robby, on the other hand, is small for his age and better known for picking fights than for finishing them. Not surprisingly, he quickly gets himself into trouble at his new school with teachers, bullies, and of course girls. But then Robby meets Danny Ramerez, and things begin to look up. Danny’s tough but fair, cool but loyal, and their friendship definitely improves Robby’s social status. He even garners the attention of several girls, including a bright, thoughtful young student named Lacy. But as time passes and the two boys become closer friends, Robby suspects that all is not as it seems with Danny. His parents, Danny tells him, are “not in the picture,” leaving him in the custody of his sinister uncle. When Danny hatches a plan to get out from under his uncle’s thumb, Robby must choose whether to risk his own neck to help him or to remain uninvolved. Robby Fights the World is a gripping coming-of-age novel about a boy who learns first-hand just how hard it can be to distinguish between right and wrong. As Robby struggles with friendship, honor, loss, and love, he is called on to make the hardest choice of his young life, the consequences of which will no doubt change him forever. Joel Christie’s young-adult novel offers a realistic (and surprisingly humorous) glimpse into the complex, gritty world of modern teens.

Robby Fights the World

Elias Henders is the prosperous owner of a ranch and a gold mine. Competing for his daughter Diana, ranch hand Colby sabotages recovering alcoholic foreman Bull, and takes his job. The local stage is repeatedly robbed of gold bullion from the owner''s mine, and Bull is suspected. The cowardly sheriff does not take action on the robberies. Rich Easterner Wainwright tries to buy the mine and ranch for a low price, but Henders refuses the offer and discusses the property''s true value with Diana. She is intrigued by Wainwright''s Eastern-educated son Jefferson, who proposes marriage. However, when they are attacked by Indians during the roundup, he runs rather than defend her. Henders is mortally wounded in the battle. Henders will bequeaths his property to his brother John back East so that he can take care of Diana, but John dies too. The Wainwrights pretend that Henders had agreed to a sale, but Diana knows better. Diana''s Eastern cousin Lillian brings Corson, a lawyer, to try to seize the ranch and gold mine. They insist that the ranch and mine are nearly played out, and that they should sell the property, offering her a small amount. They show their ignorance about western ways. Bull encourages Diana that the property is worth more than they say, and advises her that the Wainwrights are often at the mine. The Eastern lawyer finally announces that Diana has no property rights due to the wills. As pressure from the opposing forces builds, a mob goes to hang Bull for the stage robberies, but Diana warns him in time. Bull discovers there are papers that will prove Diana''s claim to the property, and that Lillian has seduced Colby to obtain his help. Bull actually does rob the stage, simply to obtain the papers supporting Diana. Diana recognizes him at the robbery, and is devastated because she is starting to have feelings for him. She orders the Wainwrights, Lillian and Corson off the property, and fires Colby. Bull has the Mexican Gregorio deliver the important papers to Diana, showing that Lillian is not related to John and thus not entitled to the property. The villains try to take over the ranch. Bull catches Colby robbing the bullion stage, and has him watched in town, but he is released by the sheriff and his friends. Colby kidnaps Diana and heads for Mexico. He claims to be rescuing her, but she knows that she does not love him. Bull follows her doggedly, and eventually rescues her. They return to town, stop the illegal title transfers and announce their impending marriage.

The Bandit of Hell''s Bend

The book begins introducing a man named Bill Nichols. He is currently investigating a mysterious house fire whom a little girl by the name of Kali survived. Out of the havoc that was reaped, it seems highly suspicious that out of all of the destruction a little girl survived. He believes it as luck and dismisses any suspician, leaving the fate of Kali unknown. Then down in Chile a boy by the birth name of Catequil and the nickname of Tigre. sits in class. The clouds roll in as he sits there bored. The clouds take control and the boy jumps from class to run outside and enjoy the storm. He loses consciousness and faints. Meanwhile an egyption tomb is broken into by someone who is obviously a child- and stolen from there an ancient artifact said to be god like. Amon (the child who stole it)escapes, knowing this artifact will help him. Then finally the story shifts to Gus. Gus is just getting home from a night out with his girlfriend Lisa, and another couple. As his 3 friends drop Gus off, the conversation shifts into one about a very famous pop singer by the name of Venus. The other couple discusses her concerts and of how the teenage pop star-Venus seems to just enchant you. AFter Gus tells them he has never heard her music, the other couple lends him a copy of Venus''s album. Gus gets out of the car, waves his friends bye and procceeds to walk inside his house. He goes to play the cd when the door rings, and his brother''s girlfriend comes in and announces that Gus''s parents along with his brother-Andrew have been in a horrible car wreck. Venus''s most disliked song-discussing the end of the world. The book forwards to December 21, 2012. All of the kids previously mentioned are all around the age of 16. Kali is stuck trying to balance a job she hates but needs to support her family, along with still fulfilling her school requirements. As a result she is portrayed as a very angry teenager. Tigre has grown up with a very controlling, rude girlfriend, named Vicky, whom upon finding out that she''s cheating on him, Vicky says he''s too weak, crushing Tigre''s confidence. And Amon who is still in Egypt, aware of the days significance. And the story then shifts to Gus. It turns out that Gus is now living in Los Angelos, with his older brother Andrew. Andrew had survived the wreck, but his parents had died. Both still coping with the death of their parents were now living with each other, and Andrew was working in a theatre business. Well on December 21 Andrew was preparing the set for the now 16 year old sedutive pop sensation-Venus, whom Gus is a fan of. After realizing how much work was needed to set up for Venus''s arrival, Andrew requests Gus''s helping, telling Gus to stay clear of the pop star as she is a bit of a diva. As both arrive at the theater Gus and Andrew are separated due to the jobs that were necessary. Gus finishes his job and leaves the room when he hears a crash. Upon returning to the room he finds an extremely attractive, tom-boyish girl who looked less perfect to Venus-whom he assumed to be some sort of relative. However she was in fact Venus, and when Gus returns the two begin to bond. Venus genuinely happy that she was able to spend time with someone who wasn''t obsessed with worshipping her, and Gus very happy now that he was with a girl-since Lisa had dumped him. However when the girls true identity-Venus is identified, Gus reacts the way expected-reverence. Venus''s bodyguard escorts her away, and Andrew soon scolded Gus for "bothering" Venus. Later, a faulty prop nearly kills Venus, and thanks to Gus she was saved. Then an earthquake began, and the two teenagers fled from the theatre building, hoping that everyone else made it out alive. The two teens ran into the night feeling the shift. Kali feels the quake, and experiences the shift. Tigre slept when the shift hit him, And Amon was ready and awake. When the shift completed Amon stood up, ready for what was to come.

So This Is How It Ends

Two friends - Derek Scully and "Outspan" Foster - get together to form a band, but soon realise that they don''t know enough about the music business to get much further than their small neighbourhood in the Northside of Dublin. To solve this problem, they recruit a friend they''d had from school, Jimmy Rabbite, to be their manager. He accepts graciously, but only if he can make fundamental changes to the group, the first being the sacking of the third, and mutually disliked, member - their synth player. After this, Rabbitte gets rid of their name, making them "The Commitments", ("All the good 60s bands started with a ''the''.") and, most importantly, forming them from another synth-pop group to the face of what he thinks will be the Dublin-Soul revolution. ("Yes, Lads. You''ll be playing Dublin Soul!") He witnesses a young man singing drunkenly into a microphone at a friend''s wedding and is struck by the fact he is singing "something approximating music". He decides the band should play soul music. Jimmy places an ad in the local paper reading "Have you got soul? Then Dublin''s hardest working band is looking for you". Eventually, he gets together a mismatched group with seemingly no musical talent, led by mysterious stranger Joey "The Lips" Fagan, who claims to have played trumpet with Joe Tex and the Four Tops. They quickly start learning how to play their instruments and perform a number of local gigs. With music fanatic Jimmy Rabbite as their manager, the Commitments seek to fulfil their goal of bringing soul to Dublin. In the beginning, Jimmy includes all of the country Ireland, but later realised that the culchies have everything whereas the Dubliners were the working-class and had nothing. Bringing soul music to Ireland was then reduced merely to the city. * Steven "James" Clifford - Pianist, * Imelda Quirke - Backup Vocalist, * Natalie Murphy - Backup Vocalist, * Mickah Wallace - Bouncer/ 2nd Drummer, * Bernie McGloughin - Backup Vocalist, * Dean Fay - Saxophonist, * Liam "Outspan" Foster - Guitarist, * Billy Mooney - 1st Drummer (quit because he couldn''t stand Deco), * Joey "The Lips" Fagan - Trumpet, * Derek Scully - Bassist, * Declan "Deco" Cuffe - Lead Vocalist. Tensions run high between the band members, not helped by the jealousy and animosity Joey receives from other male members due to the attention he receives from the female backing singers. The band slowly becomes more and more musically competent and draws bigger and more enthusiastic audiences. But the band falls apart after a gig when Joey is seen kissing Imelda and a fight ensues—all while Jimmy is negotiating to record the band''s first single with an independent label. Fagan soon goes to America after Imelda tells him she is pregnant (she was actually lying, only saying this for the attention). In the end, Jimmy, along with the band''s other founding members and Mickah, form The Brassers, an Irish hybrid of punk and country. They plan on inviting James into the band after he''s finished his medical degree, and they discuss getting the ladies involved as well.

The Commitments

When U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, the crew discovers two men cleaning up the vessel after murdering a man and his family. Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen force the killers to confess to the crime. It is later learned that the murdered man was involved in a money laundering scheme for a drug cartel. Upon hearing of this atrocity, the President of the United States, who is running for re-election, feels compelled to take drastic measures against drug trafficking; his challenger, J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration''s failures in the War on Drugs. The president initiates covert operations within Colombia and a step-up of operations against aircraft believed to be distributing narcotics. Aiding the president are U.S. National Security Advisor James Cutter, Central Intelligence Agency''s Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter, and Director of Central Intelligence Arthur Moore. The plan consists of four operations: *Operation CAPER is the interception of mobile phone communications between cartel management. It is also the communications arm for SHOWBOAT and the light-fighters'' only means of contact with the outside world. John Clark is dispatched with CAPER to coordinate the effort. *Operation EAGLE EYE uses F-15 Eagles to intercept drug flights. Several aircraft are destroyed and others are forced to land, where the pilots are interrogated for information regarding the cartel. *Operation SHOWBOAT involves four teams of soldiers infiltrating Colombia to stake-out airstrips used by drug-trafficking aircraft. They report departure times of aircraft, allowing the EAGLE EYE team to intercept them. Later the troops attack the airstrips and coca processing sites. The soldiers are seconded from U.S. light infantry battalions, and are all Hispanic in order to blend in with the local population. *Operation RECIPROCITY involves using ground-attack aircraft and laser-guided bombs to attack cartel locations discovered by intercepts. The bombs have a casing that will be consumed in the blast to give the impression of a car-bomb. Meanwhile, Félix Cortez, a former intelligence officer from Cuba employed by the cartel, feigns romantic interest in the aide of Emil Jacobs, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The aide unknowingly reveals information regarding the date of Jacobs'' official visit to the Attorney General of Colombia. Cortez delivers this information to the cartel, which orders Jacobs'' assassination as retaliation for the U.S. seizure of cartel money. During his visit, Jacobs and several other Americans in his delegation are killed. Jack Ryan suspects the CIA''s involvement in the situation in Colombia. As acting Deputy Director of the Intelligence Directorate, Ryan should be privy to most operations but he realizes he is being put out of the loop. After Robby Jackson, assigned to the Pentagon, makes an inquiry into activity in the region, Ryan goes to Moore to demand an explanation. Moore is evasive, yet orders Ryan to withhold information about Colombia from a congressional oversight committee. Cortez eventually uncovers the U.S. operations. He suppresses this information, planning to engineer a war within the cartel that will leave him in a position to seize power. Cortez orders mercenaries to hunt down the U.S. troops, and blackmails Cutter into ending SHOWBOAT, promising the intra-cartel war will slow drug imports to the States. Cutter''s meeting with Cortez is shadowed by Ryan and Clark. Clark is outraged at Cutter''s abandonment of the troops and, with Ryan, plans a rescue operation with personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Air Force. Clark makes radio contact with two of the SHOWBOAT teams, ordering them to alternate pickup points to await extraction. The other two teams encounter mercenaries and take casualties. Clark makes radio contact with some survivors of these remaining teams&mdash;which include Domingo Chavez&mdash;then flies into Colombia to retrieve them. Ryan uses an Air Force helicopter to pick up other survivors. Together, Clark and Ryan launch a raid on the cartel''s command post, capturing Cortez and extracting the remaining ground team. Due to a hurricane and damage to the helicopter, they land on the deck of the Panache. Cortez is returned to Cuba, where he is a marked as a traitor. Upon being confronted by Clark with evidence of his treason, Cutter commits suicide. Ryan confronts the defiant president, informing him that despite his classifying the drug cartel as a "clear and present danger," Ryan must brief U.S. Congress over the illegal operations. After Ryan briefs the committee, the president deliberately loses the election in order to hide the covert operations and protect the honor of those involved. Ryan realizes that the president has more honor and dignity than he originally thought.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Thursday Murder Club: (The Thursday Murder Club 1)

By Richard Osman

To Have and to Hold

By Mary Johnston

Panic Spring

By Lawrence Durrell

The Fallible Fiend

By L. Sprague de Camp

Watership Down

By Richard Adams

Gump and Co.

By Winston Groom

Od Magic

By Patricia A. McKillip

Robby Fights the World

No Author Listed

The Bandit of Hell's Bend

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

So This Is How It Ends

By Tui T. Sutherland

The Commitments

By Roddy Doyle

Clear and Present Danger

By Tom Clancy