Les Standiford

Relates the full, twenty-seven-year story behind the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh, the six-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh, as well as the decades-long search for the boy's elusive killer.

While on a trip to Key West to talk with a wealthy developer about a new building project, John Deal stops to help a young black man who is being accosted by police on a lonely beach road. To his shock, the man is found dead two days later and no one seems to be taking it seriously. To complicate matters further, everyone in town keeps alluding to a seventy-year-old mystery, and John finds himself deep in a conspiracy that people want to keep quiet....

When John Deal accepts an offer to be part of a major building project in Miami, his family and life are threatened by a corrupt government agency.

John Deal's Miami construction business is booming following Hurricane Andrew, and he has been reunited with his wife and child. But things go horribly wrong when an arsonist sets Deal's house ablaze and his wife is badly burned. He soon learns he has gotten on the wrong side of sugar cane magnate and Cuban immigrant power broker, Vicente Luis Torreno, who has ties with members of the highest levels of the U.S. Government. Deal must uncover who is...

When John Deal's friend Arch Dolan, a bookseller, is found dead, John commits himself to finding the killer. At first, he thinks it's a one off, but after the CEO of a huge bookstore chain and a local lawyer wind up dead, John realizes the murders are all connected. With the help of his estranged wife Janice, John discovers that Arch's sister was recently employed by a charismatic revivalist and has since disappeared. The couple head to snowy Omaha...

With warmth, wit, and good cheer, Standiford shows how the unlikely success of "A Christmas Carol" revitalized Charles Dickens's languishing career and revived the celebration of the near-forgotten Christmas holiday.

"Millions have sat under the 'big top,' watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men who shaped the circus. Battle for the Big Top is the untold story of the battles of the three circus kings--James Bailey, P.T. Barnum, and John Ringling--all vying for control of the vastly profitable and widely influential American Circus. Author Les Standiford recreates a remarkable era when a community--without...