Kowalski's in Love by James Rollins In Kowalski's in Love, James Rollins brings forward a minor character, one of his personal favorites, from his earlier stand-alone thriller Ice Hunt. Joe Kowalski, a naval seaman, is best described as someone with the heart of a hero but lacking the brainpower to go with it. So how does Seaman Joe Kowalski end up being recruited by such an illustrious team as Sigma Force? As they say, dumb luck is better than no luck at all. Other Stories Man Catch by Christopher Rice Rice's consistent focus over the course of his novels has been on the complex relationships that develop between straight and gay characters drawn together by a shared trauma. The Snow Garden focused on the murderous deceits that threaten a close friendship between a straight, woman and a gay man. Light Before Day centered on the parental relationship that developed between a bestselling mystery novelist and his gay assistant. This same theme can be found here in Man Catch, where a young woman's sudden discovery of a loved one's closeted homosexuality brings a rain of violence down onto a tightly knit family unit. Sacrificial Lion by Grant Blackwood In Sacrificial Lion, Blackwood introduces Henry Caulder, a British spymaster who slips into cold war East Berlin on an impossible mission. The fate of Europe, and perhaps the world, hangs in the balance. But Sacrificial Lion is not just a tale of espionage, it's also a legacy of sorts, for Henry Caulder is the grandfather of Blackwood's newest hero, Sam Caulder. Operation Northwoods by James Grippando Grippando prides himself on his research, and threw himself into all things Cuban when researching the thriller, Hear No Evil. At the time it was impossible to speak to anyone about the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay without the problem of the detainees dominating the conversation. It was then that Grippando came across a forty-year-old plan--Operation Northwoods-- which, in the hands of someone with an extremely devious mind, could cause a mountain of trouble. In Operation Northwoods, Jack and his colorful sidekick, Theo Knight, find themselves in the heat of a controversy after an explosion at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba--an explosion that rocks the world. Success of a Mission by Dennis Lynds Both a literary and suspense novelist, Dennis Lynds is credited with bringing the detective novel into the modern age then, twenty years later--in the 1980s--introducing literary techniques that propelled the genre into its current dynamic form. Iconoclastic, witty and generous, sadly Lynds died August 19, 2005, at the age of eighty-one. Success of a Mission was first published in 1968. The story is still relevant today in both its triumph and its tragedy.