Bücher von Randall Jarmon

Greg Dalhart is easily the best software engineer of his generation, but almost nobody knows it. He taught computers to reason by themselves, and used them to dramatically leverage his own genius. In three intense years, he created software that can find any fugitive in the U.S.Now it is tracking him down as he runs for his life. Suddenly Greg Dalhart is worth many millions of dollars dead.He never should have survived the first twenty-four hours, but proved astonishingly elusive. Soon the killers after him, and the woman with him, will learn the same thing: Greg Dalhart and his software are not at all what they had seemed - and one of the two might be evil.--There's a classic chase story here as action, suspense, and romance race together from Naples, Florida to the mountains of northern Georgia. One imagines both men and women turning pages quickly - but then slowing to think more deeply as the real story begins to emerge.The powerful interests after Dalhart desperately want his life. That's the chase story. However, those interests next will want the average American's freedom, and that's the real story. Readers discover just how close electronic surveillance brings them to living in an East Germany. Dalhart's technology already does, in credible ways, what the East German secret police could only dream about.Dalhart might stop the impending tyranny, but will he even try?Like all Randall Jarmon stories, this one is written in short sections. That's supposed to help you accommodate frequent interruptions during, for instance, a three-plane travel day. Even so, we think you'll find this novel hard to put down. It really is that good a story.MIKVELK Publishing, LLC

A sophisticated terrorist organization called The Movement has spent decades working to destroy America. After many long years and many serious encounters with American defenders, The Movement has little to show for the lives and fortune it's lavished on terror and deception.Among those responsible for The Movement's frustrations are (a) American Black Ops agents led by Blue Dog, (b) a high-end private security agency owned by the Riley family, and (c) one self-effacing evangelist named Amos Kirk.The Movement now has the Western World's foremost assassin on their side. A showdown is at hand,and it's been decades in the making. The next generation is going to determine most of the outcome.-----The novels in Randall Jarmon's Riley/ Blue Dog series may be read in any order. In terms of the series chronology, however, this story is the last Riley / Blue Dog suspense novel. Fittingly, it deals with succession. Top organizational leaders eventually leave. Then what happens to their organizations?Some readers might want to use When Founders Leave as an acid test for the series. This is to say that, if a series' final book is this good, would the rest of the series not be well worth reading? Eight more Riley/ Blue Dog page-turners would await readers who liked what they saw here. At the back of When Founders Leave, Randall Jarmon identifies both the core novels in the series and its peripheral novels.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

Everybody has heard about Victor Taggert. His arrest, trial, and conviction once dominated New York City news media. Taggert alone had orchestrated over two hundred coldblooded murders.Nobody's heard about Marcus West. He labors in obscurity for his wife's tiny firm. He wants to retire, but can't. He thinks his daughter needs a husband, but dares not tell her so.When Victor Taggert, against long odds, breaks out of prison, Marcus West has to stop him. Law enforcement can't help, and West is not some sort of former spy or ex-commando. He's just a thin, sixty-something senior citizen.Taggert anticipates more easy kills. However, West has already done something Taggert would never suspect. West has wrapped both arms around his strong Christian faith. Both he and Taggert will be surprised by the results.-----Abigail West runs AWSS, Inc. a successful security business. It's like a temporary help service, but it supplies very high-end field operatives, all of whom have distinguished backgrounds in the military or law enforcement.Her husband, Marcus, works in an austere, windowless room building electronic devices that will be used by AWSS in the field. Abigail wife says he works in a cave. Her office has one of the best views in Las Vegas, not to mention very expensive paintings on its walls.Despite leading what looks like a simple, secure life, Marcus West faces serious problems, one of which is his daughter, Amanda. After she acquired an MBA and a few years in the FBI, her parents enticed her to join their tiny firm. The arrangement isn't going well. Amanda, who's a superstar at administrative anything, struggles with the firm's dangerous field operations. Amanda's safety therefore is a big concern for her mother.Marcus is less concerned because his good friend, Smitty, handles the firm's field operations. Smitty is an ex-SEAL and always nearby when Amanda goes in the field. That really bothers Amanda. She chafes at getting Smitty's permission to do anything even remotely risky. She thinks it's like asking to go on a date in high school.Marcus believes Amanda needs a husband. He dares not tell her that. Amanda is Miss Independent Careerwoman, and far more interested in having a dog than a spouse.Business continuity also worries Marcus. He needs a successor, and almost nobody can do his work. Almost nobody even knows what his work is. Recruiting a protégé looks daunting.Marcus has more things to worry about---big things, at that. They'll have to wait. For the moment, Abigail and Amanda seem headed toward a profound mother-daughter confrontation over Amanda's field work. Abigail even thinks Amanda might be in mortal danger at that very moment.Abigail's right. Amanda's again doing something very dangerous and very unauthorized. She'll fail at it, too. Amanda never gets fieldwork quite right. Nonetheless, her situation will work out well.That's because God has for some years been subtly shaping AWSS's destiny.We think you're going to love the ending. We did.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

David Mudfoot finds gold for the very rich, and very secretive, Alicia and Dawson Wicks. Mudfoot has survived Alaskan winters, bear attacks, and claim jumpers. He is utterly lethal in a fight.He would rather sit at his computer than go on a date. His wolf-like dog rides around with him in Mudfoot's ugly pickup truck. Mudfoot's one of the world's foremost targets for kidnappers, not to mention the terrorists who will soon try to kill him.And now God is sending this overly complicated man to Victoria Winston.--We at MIKVELK had a lot of fun with this novel because we welcome political satire. We like all of Randall Jarmon's stories, but this one has Dawson and Alicia Wicks in it. That makes it a little like a tall tale. If you ever thought a staunchly conservative Paul Bunyan might be cool, you ought to meet Dawson Wicks.Dawson's a brilliant mountain man who finds gold so often that he holds rock star status among prospectors and mining companies. He's married to Alicia Wicks, a Dallas debutante with both a CPA and a law degree. She invests what Dawson finds. The two are now like a little commercial bank, except that they lend to nation states rather than to small businesses. Almost nobody on Earth is richer.David Mudfoot is Dawson Wicks' protégé. Mudfoot also started out poor, also finds gold reliably, and also will need years of Alicia's patient teaching to acquire social graces. He might someday even learn to dance.The Wickses bail out socialist Montshire, which is still New England's poorest state. In return, they get rights to look for gold in a vast stretch of forest covering Montshire's Greenish Hills. Nobody but Dawson Wicks thinks there's much there besides mosquitoes, black flies, and pine trees.Montshire also gives the Wickses de facto ownership of pathetic little Montshire Agricultural & Military University (MAMU). It has the only fiber optic line in the region, and Mudfoot needs that for the computer modeling he and Dawson do.Alicia Wicks brings in her former law school roommate, and longtime friend, Lady Bytes Riley to oversee MAMU. What transpires is an ongoing struggle between perhaps the worst of Academe and perhaps the best of corporate America. We, ourselves, would buy this novel just to follow Lady Bytes Riley. None of us at Mikvelk-not even Randall Jarmon, himself-foresaw how she'd emerge as so strong a character. There's more. The registrar at MAMU runs a clandestine assimilation business on behalf of a major terrorist group. He creates for terrorists from abroad the false academic backgrounds they will need to stay in America undetected. Accordingly, the area David Mudfoot will prospect in has just become an entry point and training ground for some of the world's most dangerous killers.Tori Winston owns the little restaurant next to MAMU. That puts her at ground zero for all the action to come. Tori is about Mudfoot's age, single, very nice, and very smart. She's a successful small businesswoman despite socialist Montshire's ridiculously high taxes and absurdly onerous regulation. She has a big, wolf-like dog of her own. Tori's duplex is the only place in town where Mudfoot can stay.That's the story's beginning. We think what follows will get your pulse going and your pages turning. We doubt you'll see the ending coming, and we think you'll like it when it arrives. You might even want to read that part twice.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

In 1987, two East German intelligence officers realize their socialist state is near collapse. They embezzle funds, defect to the West, and prepare to avenge their communist homeland's demise. Besides their ample funding and exotic talents, these assassins get a 25-year head start.Also in 1987, a young man begins studying assassination. In election year 2012, his lethal skills will confront the Germans' invincible plan.--The story begins in fictional Montshire, New England's second-largest state. A failing ski resort called Stumpy Runs operates its fabled Pole Buster ski trail there. One day it draws a pretty blonde skiing alone. Three elite French soldiers are skiing then, too, but almost nobody else is. It's brutally cold that day.When the Frenchmen try to rape the blonde, a young lift attendant named Ben Montgomery intervenes. He has basic martial arts skills learned from his late grandfather. Soon two of the goons lie unconscious in the snow, but the third one, swinging a crowbar left nearby, almost kills Ben.Ben survives because of the blonde. She draws a tiny .22 caliber pistol and shoots the hulking Frenchman in the shoulder from twenty-five yards. She calmly walks toward him, carefully firing her last five shots while the enraged Frenchman lumbers her way, murder in his eyes. She drops him with a well-placed kick before rushing to help Ben.The blonde is Shannon Wilcox, an accomplished woman who has powerful friends. For Ben Montgomery, 1987 is about to become a very good year.That same day inside East Germany, state security officers Ludwig Ernst and Otto Strempf meet behind closed doors. Strempf has diverted government funds to finance the two men's defection to the West. Once in the West, they'll patiently take revenge on America for East Germany's demise.Ernst defects first. He, like Strempf, is an expert skier. He crosses a minefield and surrenders to what might be NATO's tiniest contingent-two very cold enlisted men in a small truck. They eagerly take Ernst to their headquarters. That way they all can get warm sooner.Ernst negotiates the deal that brings Otto Strempf, the men's wives, and their two sons to the West. It helps Ernst that Otto Strempf's a very big fish, as Cold War defectors went. For the Strempfs and Ernsts, 1987 will be a very good year.The East Germans buy a drab ski lodge in Montshire. They become model citizens, improve their facility, and patiently prepare to kill America's political leaders in the 2012 election season. Small kills will occur along the way, as the two little boys grow into monsters.Ben Montgomery during the same years will become not only world-class deadly, but also a good husband, father, and friend. He develops the high-end analytical skills that eventually lead him back to Montshire for a dramatic clash between good and evil. We think it's one of those high-stakes showdowns you just might long remember. We will, anyway.Flat Light's Randall Jarmon's only ski novel so far. While it seems perfect for winter reading, we also recommend it for the beach. A story that transports you to ski country might take your mind off hot days and high humidity, right?Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

Two missionaries started an evangelical radio station in the secular New England state of Montshire. An arsonist soon burned the station down.Now the missionaries will try again, broadcasting from a two-acre island not far outside American waters. They will face Atlantic storms, committed apostates, and resolute terrorists. Along the way, their tiny island will become important to America's national security.One shy, devout man will share the island with the missionaries. His lethal skills were nearly unmatched in his day. That was decades ago.He's even more formidable now.--Spitzer Zahn begins with an arch-villainess called The Valkyrie taking the first steps to break her protege out of a high-security prison in the middle of nowhere. (How he got there's explained in Rebel's Trap.) She has a thoroughly good plan for that.Meanwhile, eighty-year-old Amos Kirk and his fifty-something daughter, Rachel, start an evangelical radio station in the secular New England state of Montshire, only to see it go up in flames a few weeks into its operation.The arsonist responsible for that blaze works for Wickham Skinner, pastor of the Electronic Church of Whatever, or eCOW for short. This growing organization espouses a pliable interpretation of the Bible. eCOW's theology is rather like five-star apostasy. It's highly profitable.Their radio station now ashes, the missionaries try again. They will broadcast from a two-acre island not far outside American waters. They'll face dangerous Atlantic storms, eCOW's false teaching, and deadly terrorists. They'll have powerful friends along this time, one of them being fifty-something Mark East. He's the last of Blue Dog's elite Black Ops warriors, and one of America's best spies ever.eCOW gets its own help. Before long, a sophisticated terrorist organization called The Movement subsidizes eCOW efforts to undermine Christianity. In The Movement's view, one cannot destroy America without first destroying Christianity, which did so much to make America strong. Heresy, in other words, becomes a serious weapon.Thus begins not just good action-adventure, but also a compelling battle of ideas. Think of apologetics threatened not just by theological error, but also by assassinations. A huge wave comes along, too, and briefly submerges the island.There's also a love story nestled in among the ongoing suspense. If that's still not enough, there's a beagle named Simpson. He's a big fan of a famous newspaper, The Manhattan SomeTimes.Spitzer Zahn is longer than our normal Randall Jarmon novel, and likely could have been repackaged as two novels for strictly business reasons. Randall Jarmon, however, argued that splitting the story would have damaged its flow.He's probably right, given the plot absolutely flies long. We think readers won't notice the length, but they'll welcome it if they do. When a novel is really good, you don't want it to stop, right?MIKVELK Publishing, LLC

Ruth McKenzie stormed into James South's life: fire in her eyes, pain in her heart, gun in her hand. Four hours later they were business partners in a deal that could last twenty-five years.The killers after her soon came after him. A deadly game ensued.South was willing to play, though. Long ago he'd been good at games like that. Very, very good.--Ruth McKenzie is within hours of losing everything, except for two good horses she won't be able to feed much longer. However, for a very little while, she still owns her West Texas ranch.She first sees James South after he's intentionally driven his big pickup truck right over two sections of her ranch's fence. She's furious with him, and says so with a .38 caliber revolver in hand.South mistakenly thinks his attorney bought South the ranch that morning. Once he learns Ruth will lose title to the ranch before day's end, he does all he can to acquire the ranch before then.Money's not a problem. South's rich. His longtime attorney, Judson Clark, is nearby, too. So is Clark's new assistant. She's a pretty woman lawyer named Anne, who's Clark's age. Although they haven't worked together long, she'd dearly love to ram a cell phone down his throat.Anne quits Clark's firm to represent Ruth. Negotiations take place in James' big pick-up, as the four adults hurtle along West Texas highway toward a bank well over an hour away. Nothing about their situation starts out easily. It gets much harder once the attorneys go to war with each other.Meanwhile, South's son and the son's wife are relocating to West Texas for the son's career. It comes at the expense of the wife's career, so they've agreed the move will only be for five years. Even so, she'll arrive at the ranch mourning the job she left behind.Also, a small-town banker wants to undermine anything Ruth McKenzie does. He unwittingly allies himself with a sophisticated terrorist determined to kill Ruth McKenzie and everyone dear to her. The terrorist also wants the ranch.More than once, you might find yourself wondering if Ruth will last even fifty more pages.Randall Jarmon's wife likes all his books, but this is her favorite so far. It's mostly set in the vast, majestic, and empty prairie of West Texas. Both she and he fondly remember their years living there.Besides that, the two horses are very cool.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

John Travis' career has hit rock-bottom. He now works as bait to attract high-end killers and might not last another month. Travis is cheerful, though. He's been in far worse situations, one of them deep inside the old USSR as their top assassins hunted him down.Mary's career is at its peak, and maybe going much higher. She'll sell two of her paintings at an elite auction this weekend, likely clearing millions of dollars. Even so, she's mad at God. She's been angry with Him for two years.She's soon mad at John Travis, too. Their relationship would've ended the same hour it began except for Mary's father. He's retired now, running the art gallery that sells Mary's art. Hardly anyone knows it, but before becoming an art dealer, her father was America's most successful spymaster ever.Travis owes him a big favor, and reluctantly agrees to drive Mary back to Dallas. They'll go through nighttime New Mexican desert. It's a dark, lonely trip that will turn deadly little more than forty miles into it, when a team of seven killers ambushes Travis' SUV.That all sets the stage for what we think is a terrific read. It's one of our longest novels, but we expect you'll find the story absolutely flies. You might well wish it were longer still. That's how we felt.Rebel's Trap is the second in Randall Jarmon's Riley/ Blue Dog series. However, all books of this series can be read in any order. We think each qualifies as a stand-alone novel.We further think you'll find Rebel's Trap has plenty of action, romance, and suspense. There seem about as many heartwarming moments as heart-pounding moments. Even so, it doesn't have a dog. Not to worry. A very cool beagle awaits readers in Randall Jarmon's Spitzer Zahn, which builds upon Rebel's Trap.MIKVELK Publishing, LLC.

For much of his career, Adam North was a hunted man. He carefully moved around the old USSR for years, spying on the Soviet oil industry from deep within the Soviets' vast empire. He was never caught, but his social skills languished.Once his code name, Recluse, was a joke among coworkers. Now Recluse describes him well. At age fifty-six, with too few good friends and too many bad memories, North finally turned to Christianity. He desperately wanted inner peace.Weeks later, he's again immersed in deadly conflict. He must catch a terrorist trained to evade police exactly as North did long ago. North might be able to do that.His immediate problem, though, is the woman who will travel with him. He doesn't understand her at all well.--This story takes place a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union. A terrorist group called The Movement emerges from a remote corner of Iran. It's founder is one of the world's wealthiest men and he's spared no expense. He's also been patient, taking over a decade to quietly build his evil organization. It's now formidable.It's also about to unleash trained assassins, who will roam America, killing Christians at random. The assassins' trainers include a retired KGB superstar named Yuri. He spent his KGB career hunting Adam North. Years afterward, Yuri taught the first of The Movement's assassins to evade capture in the U.S., exactly as North once did in the U.S.S.R.The Movement starts off with a three-killer pilot program. Blue Dog, an ex-admiral who officially doesn't exist, runs America's counterespionage operations. He wants North to catch the first killers encountered, who murdered a police officer near the ranch North happens to be visiting.That episode discloses the basic plan of The Movement. It soon becomes clear North will have to drive around vast stretches of cowboy country for weeks, with a doctor riding along beside him.The doctor's a widowed former missionary, Sheila Wilson. She's returned to America after decades in the jungle, and needs a bank loan to set up her own medical practice in the U.S. Working a few weeks with Adam North is how she'll amass the down payment necessary.The job pays that well because of two very rich old ladies determined to get Sheila Wilson married to Adam North. They'll spend whatever it takes to make that happen.Of course, they dare not tell either him or her what they're up to. They also know that their matchmaking will be hugely difficult. Grumpy Adam North is not usually good company. He also has profound secrets that absolutely must be hidden from Sheila Wilson.We think you'll like this suspense novel, and especially its ending. You might even like the high-powered sports car involved. We did. We liked the two old ladies even more. We think you could justify buying this novel just to meet them.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

A new kind of terrorist threatens America. These killers do not use military weapons of any sort. Instead, they deploy exotic industrial technology in deadly new ways. Each attack has the potential for hundreds of civilian casualties. The carnage, which is already severe, seems ready to escalate. The terrorists promise bigger, bloodier attacks if America's president does not send them a billion dollars.The president knows things need to move quickly. America's sea of faceless bureaucrats, he says, is far too slow to win this race against the clock. Even worse, they're think-inside-the-box-people. He therefore makes a big bet on one remarkable young man.Specifically, he puts a thirty-something civilian scientist, Thomas Irwin, in charge of stopping these fiendishly clever terrorists. Irwin's a brilliant inventor, who lives alone in an Alaskan mountain fortress. He's also a man with a secret life he would like to escape.Irwin immediately needs a support team at his mountain stronghold. Seasoned Capitol Hill staffer, Molly Olson, is rushed to Alaska to assemble that team. She's marvelously effective-or, at least, she was so before Montshire's senior U.S. senator groped her in an elevator. Molly left him semi-conscious on the elevator floor. Now her career's in jeopardy, and Irwin's strange project is her last chance.That's how the story begins: America depends on Thomas Irwin, who, in turn, relies on a very angry young woman. The surprises will start soon. Expect more than a few of them as the story flies by. We think you're going to love what's ahead.MIKVELK Publishing, LLC

America's in trouble. The Senate's at war with itself while the House founders anew. Some judges twist laws. Some journalists bend truth. Riots light up evening skies.A Swiss financier plans two murders to tip the balance of power his way. What's to stop him?Three white-collar criminals: a disgraced ex-spy, a blonde with a drinking problem, and a cop forced to retire early. They dare not contact U.S. authorities.Nonetheless, these misfits are driven by self-preservation. They have exotic skills and dangerous friends. They even have a chance.-----This novel is not only a techno-thriller, but also a romantic suspense story, an action-adventure, a crime story, a tale of redemption, and a political satire. Gentle humor somehow holds it all together, no matter how quickly the pages turn. From Us offers both men and women a good evening or two of escape reading in a cozy chair.Here's what goes on: Until getting fired, Rudy Baskin was the best detective in the New York City Police Internal Affairs unit. He retreated to graduate school. Four years later he had two software engineering degrees and a nice little business on the Dark Web, anonymously trading stolen industrial secrets. He quickly made millions.Lucinda Ashley's tiny consulting firm also sells stolen secrets. She wants Baskin as a contractor. Furthermore, after three failed marriages, Baskin seems her last chance at a family. It's a very long shot. She's a refined beauty, he's a reclusive boor. Two Russian sisters will help her transform Baskin, however. The sisters once were KGB superstars.Baskin and Ashley's small firm soon find themselves set up to take the blame for planned assassinations of two U.S. senators. It's all about getting control of the U.S. Supreme Court. The police can't help, so the little firm enlists both its friends and Mossad. Notwithstanding the world-class talent in the ring, the fight between good and evil will be a close one this time.The greater story, however, might be the clean, beguiling romance that develops between Baskin and Ashley. Jane Austen, herself, might have approved. The novel's ending is one of those warm, unexpected, and family-friendly ones some readers might feel good about for days.MIKVELK Publishing, LLC

What if America's Feebees became like Germany's Gestapo?--Years ago certain Bluezees-with active support from the top levels of America's Secret Police, the Feebees-led what became known as Rooskee Gate. It was a massive deception meant to topple a duly elected President of the United States. In effect, it was an illegal coup attempt that did not resort to assassinations.The powers behind Rooskee Gate learned from their failure. So did America's enemies abroad. Years later, with a Redzee again in the White House, Feebee insurrectionists plot another coup attempt. This time they'll add carefully targeted assassinations.Only two thirty-somethings stand in the conspirators' way. The man is a legendary hacker, who can open any file on any computer. Coup Two thinks he's dead. The woman is an accomplished consultant who knows what to do with those files. Coup Two thinks her death imminent.Together the couple just might stop Coup Two, as the rogue Feebees soon will discover. A high-stakes race against time is about to commence in the American Southwest, while the young couple try in clever ways to thwart Coup Two. The race's outcome will be decided in mere weeks or sooner, it could go either way, and casualties seem inevitable no matter what.Tara and Bootstrapper unabashedly spans genres. This lightly Christian techno-thriller has action-adventure, inspirational romance, political satire, espionage, crime, and more than a little humor. In our humble opinion, it all works well.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

Imagine that organized crime has, in effect, targeted family values. Further imagine the result just might resemble this heartwarming Christian novel's story. Specifically:He is a scientist, secretly winning the world's major lotteries. The Russian mob wants him dead.She is a single parent on the run from a vicious drug lord. Nobody in law enforcement believes her story.He and she find each other as predators from around the globe unite against them. Soon a lottery's one-in-ten-million odds might look better than their chances of staying alive.--Daniel Riley's two elder brothers are superstars. They each married a remarkable woman and fathered marvelous children. It was mostly the two brothers who built Trenchant Security into an industry leader. Their good reputations now reach into all the right places.Daniel's life has not kept pace. A brilliant scientist, he all but lived in his lab, happily focused on basic research his brothers funded. For decades, he discovered little that mattered. Meanwhile, life passed him by. At age sixty-one, he remains unmarried and childless. Not having started a family is now his major regret.Even so, his research has finally paid off. With his brothers' essential help, Daniel might soon be far more famous than they are. Staying alive will soon become much harder, though. The Russian mob is about to send accomplished killers after Daniel.While Daniel Riley was giving up having a family to instead forge a career, Deborah McSweeney made family her priority. When her daughter and son-in-law died in a car accident, Deborah and her husband took over raising their grandson. Although Deborah was a gifted CPA with uncanny instincts for taxation law, she put her career on hold.Years later, when her grandson was ten years old, she tried working outside the home again. She became the controller for a small company secretly owned by drug smugglers. She reported the smuggling, but then everything went wrong. Her husband was killed in what looked like an accident, but seemed an attempt to murder her. The smuggling proof she relied upon mysteriously disappeared, and the police didn't believe her story without it.Her company fired her. Anonymous death threats began. She took her grandson and ran from the Mexican narco baron, who controlled the small company. She and her grandson have been on the run for nearly two years and Deborah's running out of money. More frightening still, she's about to get caught.So far, this is the only Randall Jarmon story to prominently feature what might be deemed a recreational vehicle. It's a very unique RV, to be sure. Options include a gun pod on the roof, a thousand pounds of dynamite under the floor, and a very powerful computer. For twelve-year-old Shawn McSweeney, the computer's the best video game system ever.Chronologically, this novel is the first one in the Riley/ Blue Dog series. However, every single one of Randall Jarmon's novels can be read in any order.Mikvelk Publishing, LLC

This techno thriller concerns Lars Brent. He's a frail-looking Canadian scientist who has invented a wonder drug. It's easily worth half a trillion dollars, but he has no hopes of cashing in. Why? Five years ago, he used his invention to kill assassins. --Lars Brent, code named Needles, is a thin Canadian scientist who looks barely able to withstand winter winds. Yet he's a counter-assassin, who kills with a revolutionary poison and with cold-blooded cunning. He soon will hunt three deadly contract killers, doing so while fully aware treachery awaits him.His hunting also will be distracted by love. He quickly discovers a co-worker from long ago, Mila Rossi, is now divorced. She's a scientist, herself, and very much his intellectual peer. Brent even thinks Rossi could well be the world's smartest woman. Her cleverness just might save his life before the story's over.The two worked together years ago inventing poisons at a tiny, secretive Pentagon weapons laboratory in Alabama. When they unexpectedly meet again, Brent and Rossi are instantly attracted to each other. She insists they take things slowly, however, so they set a good example for her two teenagers. She also wants to know if Brent has changed.The teens already aren't so sure about Brent. Another bad marriage seems far too much for their struggling family to endure. Also, what's to be said for a Canadian man who can't play hockey?Meanwhile, a huge pharmaceutical company evolves its plot to kidnap, torture, and kill Brent for the recipe to his exotic poison. What Brent has easily would revolutionize the ethical drug industry overnight. Going after Brent would be very dangerous since he might well be the deadliest man in North America, but this particular company has so much money it doesn't care. Mikvelk Publishing, LLC