Bøger af Philip Kraske

Mockery is a political whodunit: who arranged the two scandals that sank the two major-party presidential candidates and swung victory to the Independent candidate? Sam Walker, a young history-book writer conned into covering the election by his editors, receives an anonymous post-election note: two campaign staffers from different parties colluded to bring about the scandals. He investigates, and the incredible truth pops out: that the scandals were triggered by an innocent mix-up of video tapes. A presidential election, it seems, can be lost as easily as a wallet. Alone with his scoop, Sam writes his how-the-election-was-won book, selling millions of copies -- then discovers that his story was all wrong: much more sinister forces were actually at work. Meanwhile, beautiful Laura Prestini, the campaign worker most responsible for the mix-up, has evolved from national laughingstock into A-list icon! Sam attempts to rewrite history -- but will anyone listen? Poignant, comic, and tragic, its plot turning on one clue after another, Mockery describes the elastic condition of truth in a world where media companies control the public narrative, and the Internet, by its free-for-all nature, can churn truth and falsehood into the same stew.

Quito, Ecuador. In this obscure Andean capital, ladled along the ledge of a volcano, an eruption is taking place. After centuries of oppression, the workers are on strike against their banana plantation masters. If Ecuador, the largest banana exporter in the world and the bargain basement of the industry, raises its prices, so will the others. Remarkably, Jay Streets, American pro-football star, is called on to arbitrate and set a final wage for the workers. Having no interest in the matter, he is expected to be impartial The U.S. government, however, with U.S. consumers in mind, would rather that Streets be partial.It has ordered the embassy's CIA chief to ensure it. Set against the emerald majesty of the Andes, City on the Ledge witnesses the machinations of politicians, spies, diplomats and lovers as they strive to pull off a revolution - or kill it before it can bloom.

Did drug-trafficker Marcus Strenk die trying to escape from Minnesota's maximum-security underground prison during a blizzard? Or did he actually escape? Or is his disappearance the finishing touch of a smart FBI intel op against the top Mexican drug cartel? After all, why else would the Bureau spike the U.S. Marshals' investigation? But if they did, why did Strenk send a cheery postcard to piss off the prison guards? And why did the Bureau jump on the manhunt? Or was that just for appearances? Here are some hints: Strenk knows nothing of the op, the FBI knows nothing of Strenk's whereabouts, and the U.S. deputy marshal on the case only discovers the truth when he steps through the looking glass of Bureau espionage, where he finds an absurd moral landscape twisted and blurred by the crisis economics and politics that are re-shaping America today.

Be careful about the advice you give: someone just might take it. On a two-hour airplane flight, road warrior Hal Dormund, half-delirious from jet-lag and meetings in eight countries, gave a rambling monologue of advice to a teary-eyed teenager - she would turn out to be a runaway -- who had sat down beside him. "Find what you like best and work like hell at it," he said. It is now seven years later, and she has finally found him to thank him and say that she took his advice to heart. All of it: to Hal's amazement, Mary Ann recites whole passages of his monologue word for word. What Mary Ann liked best was dance, and from the moment she got off the airplane, that is all she has done: train and train and train. And it has paid off: she is now the star of a Broadway dance production. It debuts just weeks after her reunion with Hal, and love and success embrace her for the first time in her life. And what a strange life. Having dedicated herself to dance, she is utterly innocent, knows nothing of the world, can scarcely distinguish between an ocean and a lake. Until she joined the dance company, nobody has ever treated her as more than a hired hand. Her family of Arkansas farmers didn't even search for her when she ran away. Until now. Now she is an PR embarrassment to her father, a TV preacher whose ministry is about to go national. And she is the leverage that a vile CEO is using in order to get out of paying Hal's company for a completed contract. "You want to get cooperation?" he tells Hal. "Don't put your prisoner on the rack. Put his mother or his brother - or his girl." But the central figure, shining amidst the circling black clouds of ambition, greed and jealousy, is Mary Ann: beautiful, robust, joyful, loving - in a word, magnificent. She is a jewel that the reader, like Hal, will never stop turning one way and another, delighting in every facet.