Böcker av Doug Booth

Beau Grant lives in a privileged world where success is revered;Clay Jackson is back in C-Block, Louisiana's worst Hell.*Now as attractive and alluring as she had always dreamed, Molly Peeters is taken in by well-heeled Gloria Montgomery and, many years later, a reinvented Marlee Conway has a daughter who is the essence of Southern charm. Though Tabitha is frustrated by a man she cannot expel from her dreams, who's blinded by the death of his fiancée years earlier, making Beau Grant her single-minded mission.*Jackson leaves Angola prison exhilarated, intent on revenge, coolly forewarned by the Mexican, his nemesis and darkest shadow, that he will not survive another mistake, the dire warning taking a despairing and desperate Clay Jackson into the exclusive Audubon Neighbourhood where he ignores the Mexican's advice, where he shatters hearts and innocent lives in the pre-dawn hours of March 28th-his rebirth into a brighter future.*Tabitha wants her March 28th wedding day to be Beau's happiest, unaware as he walks home from The Club in the early hours that destiny will bring him face to face with a three-time loser who cannot ever go back. Instead, days later, Tabitha hears from a devastated Marlee the horrible truth about a once young and foolish Molly Peeters trapped in Dumperscreek.

Sitting with the dejected preacher minutes before his execution, Braxton Miles doesn't see the big deal. It's simply his destiny.**Sixteen-year-old Brandon Michaels is a poor backwoods Georgia boy going nowhere, like his shiftless pa, until he flees from home the morning after his mother is brutally murdered by her husband in a blind rage who, after finishing the bottle, terminates his own miserable existence.Though Brandon's never travelled farther than town. All he knows is that he deserves a better life after killing his pa, and that he could be smart one day, deciding at the bus station that New Orleans is a good fit, stepping from the bus lost and confused into his inescapable destiny and quickly understanding that favours do not ever go away.Cody Jones is a New Orleans businessman. He takes wide-eyed Brandon under his wing; he educates the kid, giving him a new beginning and the hope of that better life that comes at a steep price.Blaire Fortune is a high-priced gentleman's escort and the most beautiful woman Brandon has ever seen. She works for CJ, charged with somehow infusing the boy with etiquette, good manners and charm.Though what Blaire and CJ cannot imagine is that, together, they are creating in Braxton Miles a sophisticated and heartless killer.

She was born into a cruel world she doesn't deserve, abandoned then sold into an even lonelier and miserable existence.*James Castle has spied on the intriguing girl through his telescope for months from his high-rise empire; he knows nothing at all about her, yet she fascinates him. She's young and beautiful with blonde lustrous hair that shines as a halo under the glaring New Orleans late-day sun, framing her innocent and angelic face, her deep green eyes speaking silent volumes of desperation and hopelessness that mirror his own misspent life. He's incredibly rich and successful, manipulated into enduring a life he loathes with the people he most despises. Though not once has he thought that he would or should one day pass by the girl or perhaps sit with her to have his portrait drawn. Until the fateful day when an absolute stranger intercedes, bringing Castle and the girl together the very moment the man throws himself head-on into hectic rush-hour traffic and dies. Castle should see terror in the girl's eyes, but he doesn't. What he sees is an envy so intense that he's afraid for her. Short minutes later the mysterious girl on the corner stares up at her saviour, unaware that she will, in fact, save him.

No One to Tell is a chronological collection of events recapturing an era when life was good, when we enjoyed the work we did, when five o'clock meant the day was done, time to party, not answering your phone in stalled traffic because your thirty-something boss hasn't finished impressing himself. Business in the 70s was all about handshakes, cocktail lunches, and making money. After hours was all about living, enjoying life, being who we were. Women and men complementing and complimenting each other. In the 80s women dressed as women, acting as ladies, making the role of a gentleman much easier. We opened doors and pulled out chairs. Romance was a skillset. Then came the 90s and the antithesis of evolution. Fax machines were obsolete, laptops and emails the new requisites. We began talking on phones while driving, dressing-down on Fridays, becoming androgynous. As much the women's fault as the men's, with fewer chairs were pulled out, fewer doors opened.The 00s brought more technology, turning adults into children, hand-held devices stealing our freedom, the work ethic transmuting to 24/7. Cinq à sept no longer meant Happy Hour; it meant working until seven to placate a boss fearful of not pleasing his. Casual Friday became Sloppy Friday, invasive emails and texting surreptitiously altering our mindsets. Gulping fast food became more efficient than fine meals, caps and tee-shirts in restaurants the new vogue. Glamour disappeared, private conversations became public, thumbing banal messages more important than holding hands and seductive whispers. Now in the 10s 'gentleman' is an archaic term, the rare ladies who persist most certainly lamenting the passing of a bygone era

Wellington never wanted much; now nothing is left for him to want. The charmed life he once lived is over; the one fanciful dream that once filled his days and nights will never come true.Teetering at the precipice of dark despair, he knows only they can bring him the everlasting peace which will end his struggle, those who came together to destroy his life.He's as resolute as he is destitute and dejected, though he would much prefer killing the heartless bitch first. Why should he die alone?*Wellington is unemployed; he's desperate, deserted by his wife, shunned by friends and belittled by a twin brother.He has no future, no hope. He's tired of the festering resentment he cannot dispel. They ruined his life without consequence, all of them guilty. He lost everything and no one cares. He blames his brother more than any other, the man who stole his dream, his life.Each one will soon feel the same desperation as Wellington embarks on a journey of freedom in search of everlasting peace which will ultimately redefine the brothers' lives.Now, moments before his execution, he's afraid, uncertain. Is he dreaming of his death, or reliving nightmares as he crosses over to everlasting peace? Cold fluids course through his veins. His eyes close. The phone rings. It always does. It's two AM.

Maria's father is dangerous, a man whose emotions are more in tune with killing than loving. What she did was wrong, immoral. Now she's come home, pleading for his help if not his forgiveness. She has no choice. She's lost and afraid. She wants his love, his affection. She wants to learn to kill.*Christine Benton stands at the altar gazing into the eyes of the man she loves, the same man who callously and viciously murdered a young girl in Mexico.Maria Bardollini wants revenge. She wants Bret Wilmington and three others to know the fear that comes with the expectation of one's own death. First she must reconcile with her father, the one person who can coerce the dead girl's difficult father into initiating Maria's plan.The two fathers come together. One is a mob boss who knows who and what he is. The other controls a multinational corporation. He's proud, denying his past and present. Yet the pristine does join with the soiled for whatever sense each one has of what is good and what is decent.Too late, Wilmington confesses to Christine. She knows better. She sees the blatant fear in his eyes. She knows there is no escape for him, at peace with herself. She knows her husband will soon be The 4th Man

Women are abducted every day, their tragic dilemmas headlining the local news until more important events hit the 6PM newsroom. We murmur "Oh, not another one." We gasp and listen in horror believing we can imagine their fear. But we don't really care. They're just gone. Out of sight, out of mind. What happens to them is beyond our mind's eye. We're too nice, or so we believe, too innocent to conceive images of the unthinkable. They're just gone. But Mercedes isn't a naïve Spring Break pass-around; she isn't a cheating wife looking for love on a bar-stool where she doesn't belong. She's a young mother and wife, innocent and afraid. She knows he will find her, terrified that he will loathe her for what she let happen to their daughter.Manuel is a US Marine sniper returning from war. For the first time he's anxious to kill. He's the best, and he's angry. Still, he knows about patience, about lying in wait for the One Shot, the One Kill. **The doorbell rings. She's innocent and kind; she opens the door to the glaring Atlanta sun. They speak to her of love, faith and goodwill. Manuel wants a better life for his wife and little Sofia, despising that he can't find work, enduring the heartache of seeing Mercedes suffer long, demeaning days as a hotel maid. He knows only one way to change how their new country sees them. Several months and100 perfect kills later, he arrives home from another man's war to give his family a better life. Instead he's greeted with vivid remnants of violence scarring their humble home. She's gone, taken from him. He's angry. He's resentful, and he's trained to kill. Killing is all that he knows as he trades a futile war for one that gives him strength.She's been gone one year, yet Mercedes feels that strength, still certain he will find her before her obligation as a Preferred Girl in Atlanta's most secret bordello is terminated. Until then she must survive to save her daughter. She must give Manuel the time he needs. She must never be sent to the vault, her premier client crucial to her plan, unaware that William and Manuel have joined together. William accepts his fate. To save Mercedes he must now confess to a desperate husband who's made the Marine creed his own: One shot, one kill, and William's the target.

Davidson stands despondent at the corner of La ruelle de la Falaise in Paris, blue smoke wafting aimlessly into the night air from between muted lips. The jeep stops abruptly. He shrugs at the MPs. He doesn't care. He's made a terrible mistake, though that night there is no curfew for the men ordered to fight the Battle of the Shelde.The darkened window above the quaint French bistro reflects the soft moonlight, not her tear-streaked face, not her trembling lips; her pleading whispers a needless secret to last a lifetime.A moment lost in time, a moment lost to lovers torn apart, a moment that will one day bring torment, tragedy and death.*Davidson Alexander knows where he truly belongs at the end of a long, brutal war. Instead he deserts her to embark on a path of deceit, death and destruction.He comes home from liberated Europe to his devoted Emily, his dreams threatened by Emily's need to erase a dark secret. Facing a grim future, Davidson struggles to stave off certain failure. Coldly disregarding Emily's pleas, he gives up their twins and sells their home.The years pass. He's successful and wealthy, though Emily never forgives him. Nor does he now forgive her. Jean-Alexandre, Gabrielle's son, arrives to turn his father's world upside down. Through him Davidson discovers Emily's deception, returning to France to be with Gabrielle until her death.Now Davidson's at death's door, eager to make amends with his twins. He hires a detective, aware nothing to that without Emily's greed he'll fail once again. Though suddenly he dies, never to see his grandson: a repeat offender with nothing to lose. Nor will Davidson know of Emily's murder, her daughter's or the detective's.What Jean-Alexandre knows is the killer's name, that he murdered his own parents, and when he will arrive to kill again.

A desperate mother protects her child, the thick blade slicing into her husband's skull. *Mother and daughter flee to a better life. However, only after Mary's death, decades later, does Pearl learn the real truth about her mother, the truth about what happened at Deep Lake and the tragic fate of a young Indian boy.Dina Becker is a cop, a good one, the Captain of SVU. Yet she cherishes her most prized possession, her mother-of-pearl dagger, more than her job: the focus of her existence since her sister's brutal murder.Miranda Stevens is an officer of the court in another city, a successful prosecuting attorney. She has just pierced the heart of Charles Preston in his hotel room with a finely crafted blade and aloof precision. She's young and she's beautiful. Yet she's had no life since her lover's murder, walking into the bar alone, believing she doesn't care why. She's been trained by the best. She is the best, yet she's made a fatal error that will not be forgiven by Mother.The woman seated beside her is a cop. Dina Becker knows why the strangely alluring young woman has come to her city. She now knows who killed Charlie Preston, and she knows why. Now Miranda has no choice. All that matters is Pearl.

Clint Evans believed for all those years that his sole purpose in life was to one day kill his wife who sent him to prison. Instead he finds a young woman equally desperate for a new life.Kathy needs to escape a cheating husband and self-destructive daughter who despises her, everyone agreeing her son should never have been born. Her life is a constant battle and she wants out.She's soon torn between his effusive affection and the deepening love of another she can't possibly explain or deny. And Clint knows. He knows everything about her...everything, and he won't let her go, his charm more compelling each day.Too late Kathy learns the horrible truth, that her world is being destroyed. She vows revenge. She wants her life back.

Wendell Parkens is privileged and more than a little naïve. He's refined, a man of means, an unfaithful husband and uncaring father; he's a businessman, an accomplished liar and a killer. He lives in a world left to him by a father he despises, a world on the brink of war that is neither of his doing nor of his choosing, a world which he must soon depart if he is to escape a German's misspent bullet or the hangman's knot.

What Do We See When We gaze Into the Mirror, Beyond Our Simple Reflection?We See What Others Cannot, We See the Truth.*Agent Fennell believes he knows everything about the killer, except who she is, where she is, where she'll strike next, and with whom. Not viewing those issues as particularly daunting, he's more interested in what Deena Archer is wearing under her drenched tailored suit.To Deena he's a jerk, a know-it-all chauvinist, a rude, ill-mannered troll she would likely protect with her life...as a professional courtesy, though she is not entirely convinced.The man's a despicable pig, yet she couldn't possibly imagine that one day very soon she'll be too far away to prevent his murder.