Bøger af Robert Hays

When Birdie Wilson and his two boys find a baby floating in a basket on the Ohio River, they can't begin to imagine the impact their discovery is to have on their little of town of Cambria.Accepting Birdie's dictum that the child welfare people will name her "Baby Jane Doe" and lose her in their impersonal system, the townspeople, led by Mayor Johnny White, set out to keep the baby a secret from authorities and take care of her until they find out who she is. Surprising things take place. Cambrians who've never agreed on anything come together. Good things happen to those who become involved. Father Jacob and Pastor Mike, always competitive, work together. Granny Vogler, the town sorehead, and Ida Quattlebaum, the reclusive heir to the Quattlebaum Steamship Company fortune, find common interests. Molly Hearst, who cares of and comes to love the baby like her own, finds love with Lynn Swafford, a deputy sheriff searching for the baby after one of Birdie's boys inadvertently reveals her existence.But the big question remains . . . Where did this baby come from.

Life is good for Bradley Morris, an aging but vital World War II veteran, except for the nightmares and horrible memories of long-past days in combat. With his beloved wife Lizzie at his side, he travels back to the battlefield in Sicily where he was mortally wounded and his best friend died, and finds that facing his demons head-on helps bring peace of mind. But now he suddenly faces a far more painful situation: the potential loss of Lizzie, who appears to be in good health one minute and suffers a massive heart attack the next. As Lizzie lies in a coma and death seems near, others in the family accept what has to come. But Bradley refuses to give up. He relives in memory his and Lizzie's years together-their time as high school sweethearts, the ordeal of his going off to war, the trials of raising children, his alcoholism, and their learning and growing together through the racial strife surrounding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in their home town of Memphis. Bradley gradually allows himself to acknowledge the inevitable and devotes himself to keeping promises made to Lizzie-particularly reconciliation with their son after a decades-old quarrel over the Vietnam war. And he must also find a way to overcome the guilt he feels for surviving his own war when his best friend did not. In the end, it is renewal of the faith he lost in battle that sees Bradley through.

Oscar Koch's sterling performance as Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s intelligence chief, G-2, was a critical element of Patton's success in World War II and earned Koch the reputation as arguably the most brilliant intelligence officer in U.S. Army history.His collection and analysis of information in early winter 1944 led him to issue stern warnings of the German buildup preceding the Battle of the Bulge and let Patton be prepared, but higher headquarters refused to listen. Today, intelligence specialists cite that work as a model for combat intelligence training. After the war, Koch went on to help overhaul the CIA and, in retirement, earned a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship to support research and writing on intelligence in combat.His unlikely friendship with Robert Hays, a young journalist who also happened to be a veteran of Koch's beloved U.S. Third Army, led to a book that has become a crucial source for military historians. Now, Robert Hays offers a deeply personal account of their relationship, reveals the general's astonishingly gentle and caring nature, and describes Koch's philosophy and concerns about the intriguing field of intelligence. Overarching all is the poignant story of Koch's valiant battle with terminal cancer. The reader will understand why Hays grants Oscar Koch the eminent rank of personal hero and feels an obligation to help assure his place in history.

When Colletta and Jimmie witness the brutal killing of a playmate's father in a domestic quarrel, the innocence of childhood is lost forever. Little do they realize that the repercussions will follow them into adulthood. Jimmie is left with a sense of helplessness and an unwitting habit of taking the easy way out, while Colletta finds solace in pain-killing drugs. Still, the love between these childhood sweethearts surely is forever. Through a series of unplanned events, the unbreakable bonds among the enduring team of pals in which they're joined by DJ and Ray-Gene are strained almost beyond endurance. But DJ and Ray-Gene love Colletta, too, as friends, and the three boys dedicate themselves to protecting her from harm. This is not always easy, given that poverty, racism, alcohol and drugs are common elements in their small-town South Carolina surroundings. And when Colletta needs him most, Jimmie is unable to face their painful circumstances. He seeks refuge as an Army paratrooper ready for service in Iraq. A training accident leaves him seriously injured and suddenly Colletta is back in his life, so that his ordered military existence and the thrill of the jump no longer insulate him from his troubled past. Meanwhile, he faces the added complication of being caught in the middle of a mysterious and dangerous conflict between two superiors that places him in a vulnerable position which feels all too familiar. No longer the "good soldier" who follows orders without question, he comes to renounce war and knows that he can never again follow orders blindly. The Army life can no longer be his life. But what else can he do? Now it is Colletta who's strong in Jimmie's time of need. He wants to reconcile and learn to love her child, to settle into a peaceful domestic existence. But Colletta is afraid. Will he run away again? Are both their earlier failures too much to overcome? Could they ever make a life together? And why does her child look so much like Ray-Gene?