Books published by Forge

Set in 1750's Pennsylvania, INTO THE WILDERNESS depicts life in the Allegheny Mountains and the Northeast at the beginning of the French and Indian War. Noah Wilde is a "long hunter," a man who hunts game for settlements and forts and is sometimes gone for months at a time.Sixteen-year-old Jessica Matthews is attacked by Ottawa Indians and is saved by Noah, who is wounded in the encounter. As Noah recovers at Jessica's mountain cabin, he and Jessica fall in love, but Noah, who is secretly spying for the English government, has a mission to fulfill and is forced to leave once he recovers.Noah's role in an earlier French versus English battle forces his imprisonment, and he is unable to return to Jessica in time to save her and her family from an Indian attack that leaves her parents and brother dead and sees Jessica captured by Delaware Indians.After his release, Noah is sent on a new mission with a young George Washington, and when he discovers what happened to Jessica, he leaves to search for her. He once again risks his life to free her.Although Noah and Jessica are fictitious characters, INTO THE WILDERNESS is filled with real history, characters, and adventures that depict the courage and determination necessary for the birth and growth of the United States of America.

When Texas Ranger private Andy Pickard is assigned to help patrol the Texas-Mexico border country he rides directly into a deadly feud. At odds are two land and cattle barons - Jericho Jackson, whose great spread lies just north of the Rio Grande, and Guadalupe Chavez, whose domain lies south of the river.The men are alike in only one respect: their hatred for each other, a hate born at the time of the Alamo and the U.S.-Mexican War, when Mexican lands were confiscated by ruthless Americans. The old rivals have turned to preying on each others'' cattle with resulting bloodshed on both sides of the river.Between the two camps, Big Jim McCawley''s ranch seems almost symbolic of the opportunity for the people of the two nations to live together. McCawley is married to Guadalupe Chavez''s sister, Juana -a fact that does not ingratiate him to either the Chavez or Jackson faction.To Andy Pickard, who as a child was taken captive by Comanches, old prejudices are familiar territory, but the Jackson-Chavez war is flaring out of control by the time he reaches the Ranger camp on the border in the company of fellow Ranger Farley Brackett. The two Rangers find themselves caught up in the feud, risking arrest for crossing the river into Mexico, and risking death for not heeding the warning sign at the edge of Jericho Jackson''s domain: This is Jericho''s Road. Take the Other.Inevitably, the cauldron boils over and the forces of Jericho Jackson and "Lupe" Chavez meet in bloody combat. In the midst of this battle on Mexican soil are Andy Pickard -- longing to court and marry Bethel Brackett and live a peaceful life as an ex-Ranger -- and Brackett himself, falling in love with Teresa, Big Jim McCawley''s half-Mexican daughter.Jericho''s Road, sixth book in Kelton''s acclaimed Texas Ranger series, typifies "The right blend of action, drama, romance, humor and suspense" that Publishers Weekly said has made Kelton "a master of both plot and character development."

In Larry Bond's Red Dragon Rising: Shock of War, New York Times bestselling authors Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice imagine a horrifying near-future immersed in global war. Under secret orders from the President, U.S. Army Major Zeus Murphy sabotages a Chinese invasion fleet on the eve of its assault against Vietnam. But after Murphy and fellow officer Win Christian are trapped behind enemy lines, Christian's erratic behavior gives them away. The pair shoot their way out of a Chinese airport terminal, hijack a bus, then barely escape two truckloads of soldiers before disappearing into the night. Thus starts Zeus Murphy's personal odyssey in the latest installment of the Red Dragon Rising series.Back in America, President Chester Greene fails to convince Congress that the Chinese invasion of Vietnam is the first step in a plan to rule Asia-and eventually go to war with the U.S. Not even the Pentagon will support the President; top-ranking officers do everything they can to sabotage his orders.After Zeus and Christian dodge a Chinese armored division and return to Vietnam, Zeus proposes a plan to blunt the tank attack. His commanding officer orders him to stand down. Zeus disobeys in an effort to help the Vietnamese woman he's fallen in love with. Win Christian goes with him to prove he's not a coward...within hours, both men are alone with a company of Vietnamese soldiers on the border, staring down the barrels of Chinese main battle tanks as they drive on Haiphong, starting a countdown to all-out war with the West.

Travelling performers struggle to impress rowdy western towns in Anything Goes, and ambitions clash as Montana miners fight for control of The Richest Hill on Earth; two novels from six-time Spur Award winner Richard S. Wheeler.Anything GoesThe cowboys, gold miners, outlaws, gunmen, prostitutes, and marshals who populate the Wild West never see much big-city entertainment. Those western towns are too wild and rowdy for entertainers to enter, let alone perform in them. All that is about to change. Though the towns are starved for entertainment, the Follies struggles to fill seats as it grinds from town to town. Just when the company is desperate for fresh talent, a mysterious young woman astonishes everyone with her exquisite voice.The Richest Hill on EarthThe city of Butte looks like a cancerous mélange of smoky mine boilers and rudely constructed sheds when newspaperman John Fellowes Hall arrives in 1892. But Butte is the place to get rich. It is also a city full of stories, perfect for a journalist looking to make a name for himself. As an employee of mining titan William Andrews Clark, Hall will find himself deeply involved in the best story of them all: the fight among the Copper Kings. This is the story of their struggle as well as the story of the ordinary people-the miners, their wives and children, the journalists, and even the psychics-trying to make their fortunes on the richest hill on earth.This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

While trailing a Chinese nuclear attack sub, Jerry Mitchell, the captain of USS North Dakota, is shocked to see the Chinese boat torpedo a Vietnamese merchant ship. This blatant act of aggression is the opening gambit in a war that has blindsided the U.S. and quickly embroiled all nations in the western Pacific. These nations, bound together in the newly formed Littoral Alliance, have begun a covert submarine campaign aimed at crippling China''s economy before China can set in motion its own plot to dominate the region.In a desperate attempt to buy the president enough time to resolve the crisis diplomatically, Mitchell''s submarine squadron is ordered to interfere with attacks by both sides. China and the Littoral Alliance are both determined to win, no matter the cost, and as each side increases the level of violence, they approach a dangerous tipping point. Larry Bond''s Shattered Trident is a race against time, as the submarines of Mitchell''s squadron must execute their mission before the world witnesses an economic catastropheΓÇöor worse, a nuclear exchange.

From the legendary author of the west Zane Grey, writing with Helen Cody Wetmore: two complete novels in one low-priced edition The Last of the PlainsmenZane Grey, chronicler of the greatest adventures of the West, and Buffalo Jones, last of the plainsmen, that tough breed who followed their dreams west, into the empty spaces of the untamed heart of the country. The land draws these men.The unsettled West is fast-disappearing, along with the wild creatures who call it home. This historical novel chronicles the last mission of the last of the plainsmen, the adventure that brought the West to vivid life for Zane Grey: track buffalo, mustang, and cougar, and bring them back, not as trophies, but alive and kicking!The Last of the Great ScoutsThe life story of Colonel William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," as told by his sister, Helen, and Zane Grey. This biographical novel begins with Bill''s boyhood in Iowa and his first encounter with an Indian. We see him as a pony express rider, then near Fort Sumter as Chief of the Scouts, and later engaged in the most dangerous Indian campaigns. There is also an account of the travels of Cody''s famous Wild West Show. Few other characters in public life make a stronger appeal to the imagination of America than Buffalo Bill, whose daring and bravery made him famous.

William Peter Blatty has thrilled generations of readers with his iconic mega-bestseller The Exorcist. Now Blatty gives us Dimiter, a riveting story of murder, revenge, and suspense. Laced with themes of faith and love, sin and forgiveness, vengeance and compassion, it is a novel in the grand tradition of Morris West's The Devil's Advocate and the Catholic novels of Graham Greene.Dimiter opens in the world's most oppressive and isolated totalitarian state: Albania in the 1970s. A prisoner suspected of being an enemy agent is held by state security. An unsettling presence, though subjected to unimaginable torture he maintains an eerie silence. He escapes---and on the way to freedom, completes a mysterious mission. The prisoner is Dimiter, the American "agent from Hell."The scene shifts to Jerusalem, focusing on Hadassah Hospital and a cast of engaging, colorful characters: the brooding Christian Arab police detective, Peter Meral; Dr. Moses Mayo, a troubled but humorous neurologist; Samia, an attractive, sharp-tongued nurse; and assorted American and Israeli functionaries and hospital staff. All become enmeshed in a series of baffling, inexplicable deaths, until events explode in a surprising climax.Told with unrelenting pace, Dimiter's compelling, page-turning narrative is haunted by the search for faith and the truths of the human condition. Dimiter is William Peter Blatty's first full novel since the 1983 publication of Legion.

An all-new 24 adventure by New York Times bestselling author Dayton Ward, 24:Trial by Fire. Receiving 73 Emmy Award nominations over eight seasons, 24 revolutionized the format of TV dramas on a global scale. Before London... Before CTU... Before the clock started ticking...1994: Tateos Gadjoyan, an Armenian arms merchant, has been a target of the Central Intelligence Agency for years. Efforts to thwart his selling of American military weapons to terrorists and other enemies of the United States have been unsuccessful. Now, after months of careful planning, two undercover agents have infiltrated Gadjoyan''s inner circle. Soon, they will have sufficient evidence to seize the arms dealer and remove a clear and present danger to the United States.On the small Japanese island of Okinawa, Gadjoyan''s representatives are concluding a deal with Miroji Jimura. Jimura''s hatred of Americans is absolute, and he''s only too happy to profit from sales of their own weapons to be used against them.When a rival of Jimura''s sabotages the arms deal, one of the CIA''s undercover assets is killed, threatening the case against Gadjoyan and revealing a far greater menace to American security. The only thing standing against this new, immediate danger is a single, junior CIA agent named Jack Bauer.

Few writers have captured the flavor of the American Southwest better than Aimee and David Thurlo, in both mysteries and romantic suspense. Looking Through Darkness is the latest in their Trading Post series.Josephine Buck runs a trading post just off the Navajo Reservation. Widow Leigh Ann Vance is Jo's right-hand-woman, filling the emptiness in her own life. Shortly after her husband, Kurt, was killed, Leigh Ann discovered he had been having a string of affairs. Leigh Ann's trust issues affect her feelings for blind sculptor Melvin Littlewater.Kurt's business partners accuse Leigh Ann of helping Kurt embezzle and the police wonder if Leigh Ann killed him. When she turns to Melvin for help, she finds him fighting his own demons, haunted by memories of a young girl he saw moments before the car crash that cost him his sight. Together, Leigh Ann and Melvin delve into the darkest moments of their pasts, searching for truth and light.

Inspired by the life and adventures of his own great-great grandmother, Betty Zane was Zane Grey's first novel and launched his career as a master writer of rousing frontier and Western adventures.Betty Zane is the story of the events culminating in the last battle of the American Revolution, when two hundred Redcoats from British-controlled Detroit along with four hundred Shawnee Indian attacked the small, wood-palisaded Ford Henry on the western frontier. The heroine of the battle--a young, spunky, and beautiful frontier girl--was Betty Zane

Helicopter pilot Lt. Sara Denning joins a navy battle group with little fanfareΓÇöand that''s just the way she likes it. After her brother Ian''s tragic death, her career path seemed obvious: step into his shoes and enter the Naval Academy, despite her fear of water. Sara''s philosophy is simpleΓÇöblend in, be competent, and above all, never do anything to stand out as a woman in a man''s world. Somewhere along the way, Sara lost herselfΓÇöher feminine, easygoing soul is now buried under so many defensive layers, she can''t reach it anymore.When she meets strong, self-assured Lt. Eric Marxen, her defenses start to falter. Eric coordinates flight operations for a Navy SEAL team that requests Sara as the exclusive pilot. This blatant show of favoritism causes conflict with the other pilots; Sara''s sexist boss seems intent on making her life miserable, and her roommate and best friend, the only other woman on the ship, is avoiding her. It doesn''t help that her interactions with Eric leave her reeling.The endgame of the SEALs'' mission is so secret, even Sara doesn''t know the reason behind her mandated participation. Soon, though, the training missions become real, and Sara must overcome her fears before they plunge her into danger. When Sara''s life is on the line, can she find her true self again and follow the orders of her heart before it is too late?Anne A. Wilson''s Hover is a thrilling, emotional women''s journey written by a groundbreaking former navy pilot.

Patrick Taylor's Now and in the Hour of Our Death is a moving and compelling portrait of ordinary men and women caught up in a conflict not of their making, and of the way the past holds onto us even as we try to move on into an uncertain future.Nine years ago, the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland tore apart two young lovers, consuming their hopes and dreams and changing their lives forever. Now, in 1983, Davy McCutcheon and Fiona Kavanagh find themselves worlds apart. Davy, once a bomb-maker for the Provisional IRA, is serving a twenty-five-year sentence in a British prison. Having seen enough of death and violence, he wants nothing more to do with the struggle that cost him his freedom and his love. But old loyalties die hard and, despite himself, Davy is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy on behalf of his fellow Provos . . . . Meanwhile, Fiona has forged a new life for herself in Vancouver, British Columbia, far away from the war-torn streets of Belfast. Now a vice-principal at a local elementary school, she has a successful career, good friends, and a new man in her life. Yet she remains haunted by painful memories of her troubled homeland-and the love she left behind.

Throughout history, people have sought ways to contact the dead and spirits. Such experiences challenge beliefs and often set people on a path of deeper exploration, looking for validation-and ways to have controlled, direct contact. Do spirit communication devices really work? What are the prospects of someday being able to pick up a cell phone or sit in front of a webcam and talk to the Other Side? While proof of contact is still elusive, there is an abundance of tantalizing evidence and experience to inspire people.For the past century, inventors have been inspired by the spirits themselves to create telephone, video, radio, and computers to attempt real-time, two-way communication with the dead and other entities.Talking to the Dead explores the colorful history and personalities behind spirit communications, weaving together spirituality, metaphysics, science, and technology. It examines the idea that new technology can connect to the ancient and universal wisdom of the "music of the spheres"; that contact with the spirit realms can be made through the vibrations of sound.

When Never-ending-snake begins, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah is returning from Washington, DC, where she was offered a lucrative job with a private security firm. Taking the job would mean uprooting her daughter, but it might give the young teen opportunities she'd never see on the Reservation.As Ella and her companions deplane, gunfire sends them diving for cover. When the shooting stops, a Navajo war hero has been mortally wounded-but was alternative fuel lobbyist Nelson Lonewolf the intended victim? Or was the gunman aiming for powerful tribal attorney Kevin Tolino? Or for Ella herself? Ella struggles to find the killers while helping the tribe find a way to move forward with the alternative-fuel project and protecting her family-and Kevin, her daughter's father.Never-ending-snake, a tense police procedural, is part of the Ella Clah mystery series.

Blackening Song is the debut of Navajo FBI agent Ella Clah, who returns to the reservation to investigate the murder of her father, a minister. The ritual nature of the killing makes Ella's brother, a medicine man, the prime suspect. Without cooperation from the tribe, the FBI, or the local police, Ella must plumb the depths of the struggle between traditionalist and modernist forces among the Navajo to find her father's murderer.

Malgwyn ap Cuneglas is counselor to Arthur, High King of the Britons. When he accompanies his liege to the West to broker a deal between warring tribes they come across a scene of utmost depravity and murder to sicken even the most battle-hardened warrior. Things don't get any better when they finally arrive at their destination to discover that King Doged is fighting to keep his kingdom safe from both Saxons from abroad and younger nobles vying for power. Doged loses that fight when shortly after Arthur and his counselor arrive, he is murdered. His young wife, defenseless and alone, appeals to Arthur to find her husband's killer. Arthur quickly agrees and Malgwyn is given this almost impossible task.Why would Arthur be so interested in helping keep this small region stable and under the High King influence? Perhaps because Doged's people had discovered caves that might contain huge veins of gold....The Stolen Bride is the next masterpiece in Tony Hays's critically acclaimed Arthurian mystery series.

In this third title in Hays's Arthurian mystery series, Malgwyn is sent north to fetch the young woman who is to be Arthur's bride. But he discovers a string of ritualistic killings of young virginal women, and Malgwyn is left with a question he must answer quickly.

Night Work: the second book in David C. Taylor's transporting historical crime fiction series.Michael Cassidy, a New York cop plagued by dreams that sometimes come true, escorts a prisoner accused of murder to Havana on the cusp of Fidel Castro's successful revolution against the Batista dictatorship. After delivering the man to La Cabaña prison and rescuing Dylan McCue, a Russian KGB agent and his now-married former lover, from her scheduled execution, Cassidy returns to New York and retreats into the comforts of alcohol and sex.The arrival of Fidel Castro in New York three months later complicates the cop's life once more. Cassidy's investigation of a young man's murder in Central Park is interrupted when he is assigned to Castro's protective detail. Castro has many enemies. American mobsters who have been run out of Havana, businessmen who worry about their investments in Cuba, and members of Batista's secret police all want him dead. Cassidy is already investigating one murder. Can he prevent another?Michael Cassidy SeriesNight LifeNight Work

He was known as Deathwind to the Ohio Valley Indians, and now Lewis Wetzel must single-handedly save Fort Henry. Armed only with his long rifle and knife, he heads out on a one-man rampage to stop the bloody border wars, to face down Chief Wingenund and to avenge the brutal missionary massacre at Village of Peace.

In Comanche Dawn Mike Blakely does for the Comanche nation what Ruth Bebe Hills did for the Sioux in Hanta Yo. This landmark novel is the first time the story has been told from the point of view of the Comanches themselves. We witness the rise of one of the most powerful mounted nations in history through the eyes of a young warrior named Horseback. Born on the very day that the first horse comes to his people, Horseback matures into a leader of unquestionable courage and vision. He assumes powerful medicine granted to him by spirits encountered on a grueling vision quest, and he takes Teal, the most beautiful young woman of his tribe, as his wife and lifelong love. Guided by forces more powerful and dangerous then even he can control or explain, Horseback will face death time and time again with only his medicine and Teal to stand beside him.Failure will mean destruction not only for himself, but for his people. Success will mean unimaginable wealth for his new nation. Ancient enemies will seek to destroy him. Strange newcomers with pale skin and treacherous ways will attempt to enslave him. Even his own inner spirit powers threaten always to consume him, should he fail to respect them. Only the bravest of True Humans dare to follow Horseback on his great adventure down a trail that can lead only to glory or annihilation.

When Indians massacre an army troop, Ross Caldwell's wife fears he's among the victims. But Caldwell is on the run, pursued by bitter enemies from the Civil War.Caldwell finds refuge in the arms of the sultry madam of Last Chance Gulch. But his bloody past catches up with him. A murderous ex-soldier is on his trail, and his wife has tracked him down as well. . .

Zane Grey is one of America's most popular and enduring authors, the man behind the classic Western Riders of the Purple Sage.Desert of Wheat is a thrilling and romantic tale of sabotage in the wheat fields of the Pacific Northwest during World War I. A passionate novel of patriotic and anti-union propaganda, it portrays the anxieties of the young country threatened by a foreign war after the closing of the frontier. Grey captures the heart of a nation at the brink of a century of change.

he cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have gathered in Rome for the papal election following the death of the incumbent pope. Torn by internal conflict and with many of its members alienated, the Church faces one of the most serious crises in its history. A coalition of cardinals favors a more moderate and pluralistic style of papal governance, but must contend with shadowy Vatican forces that oppose change and loss of their own power. These forces are determined to destory the coalition''s candidate, a gentle and brilliant Spanish scholar. The leader of the coalition is Chicago''s wily Sean Cardinal Cronin, aided by his patently indispensable sidekick, Bishop John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan.A lone assassin stalks the Vatican, his crazed mission: to destroy the next pope as soon as the traditional white smoke issues from the cardinals'' meeting room--the Sistine Chapel--followed by the ancient words Habemus papam.Can politics--Chicago style--turn the Catholic Church around? What will happen when the next pope must be chosen? Only Andrew M. Greeley, priest, bestselling novelist, and respected sociologist could have written this blockbuster tale of the forces actually ripping the Church apart, and of the next papal election, when the fate of the entire Catholic Church itself may well hang in the balance.

Andrew M. Greeley''s bestselling Nuala Anne McGrail mystery series returns with the fourth installment, Irish Mist Dermot Michael Coyne isn''t sure what he''s gotten himself into. Nuala Anne McGrail, that beautiful and vivacious "Celtic witch" has finally agreed to marry him. But they''ve barely tied the knot when Nuala''s psychic "spells" begin again. Visions of a burning castle, the captain of the infamous "Black and Tan" police force, a wild woman from Chicago, and bloodshed--all somehow connected--lead the two to the remnants of a mystery long buried in the mist of Ireland''s turbulent and violent past. How did Kevin O''Higgins, the murdered leader of the movement to free Ireland, die? And who among the living will do whatever it takes to keep Nuala and Dermot from finding out?