Showing results by author "Les Standiford" in All Categories

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist. The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution.

Looking at the island of Palm Beach today, with its unmatched mansions, tony shops, and pristine beaches, one is hard pressed to visualize the dense tangle of Palmetto brush and mangroves that it was when visionary entrepreneur and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler first arrived there in April 1893. With the authority and narrative prose style that has gained Standiford's work widespread acclaim, Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, and the Rise of America's Xanadu tells the history of this fabled landscape intertwined with the colorful lives of its famous protagonists.

Two founding fathers of American industry. One desire to dominate business at any price. “Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience.”—USA Today “The narrative is as absorbing as that of any good novel—and as difficult to...

The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created—William Mulholland’s Los Angeles aqueduct—a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today. In 1907...

“Les Standiford takes us under the big top and behind the curtain in this richly researched and thoroughly engaging narrative that captures all of the entrepreneurial intrigue and spirit of the American circus.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Devil in the Grove Millions...

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven...

“Les Standiford’s account of the decades-long attempt to solve the murder of Adam Walsh is chilling, heartbreaking, hopeful, and as relentlessly suspenseful as anything I’ve ever read. A triumph in every way.” —Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River “The most significant missing child...

“Popular history in its most vital and accessible form. Standiford has recovered the mentality of America’s first group of young radicals, the Sons of Liberty, and tells their story with flair and grace.” —Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Founding Brothers Les...

Two founding fathers of American industry. One desire to dominate business at any price. “Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience.”—USA Today “The narrative is as absorbing as that of any good novel—and as difficult to...

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven...

From the introduction by Les Standiford: "The truth is that Miami, though naturally lovely, is a frontier town, perched on the border between the known and the rarely before experienced. The poet Richard Hugo once said that the natural place for the writer was on the edge, and 'edge' might well be the definitive word when it comes to this city... We are not only on the edge of the continent, we are to this country what New York was in Ellis Island's heyday, what the West Coast was in the middle of the 20th century.

The richest man in the world invites a trio of mediocre golfers to play at a secret course in Scotland. The result of their efforts will somehow affect the fate of the world. Can golf save the world?...

Done Deal is filled with gripping characters, unforgettable encounters and unexpected twists. As the Miami sun shines down on a brutal world of corruption and violence, Johnny Deal is salvaging what is left of his family’s contracting business. His four-plex will be completed once he pays off a few more inspectors, and he is rejoicing in his wife’s pregnancy. But he’s about to find himself standing in the way of investors who will do anything, and eliminate anyone, that keeps them from the property they want.

In 1931, a storm passes through the Florida straits, soon followed by a devastating explosion aboard a freighter, The Magdalena. Decades later, John Deal, the brooding real-estate developer and hero of eight previous Standiford mysteries, is traveling to Key West to talk over a prospective...

When Presidential Deal hit the bestseller lists, fans of Les Standiford’s other books, including Done Deal and Raw Deal, rejoiced. They already knew what new listeners would find: taut suspense, tough characters, and a superb sense of mood. Now in Black Mountain, Standiford combines high-country adventure with a tale of ruthless revenge.

If you like audiobooks laced with dark, gritty suspense, you won’t be disappointed by this addition to the adventures of Johnny Deal. Set in Miami, each novel in Les Standiford’s gripping series glows with the heat of danger and deception. In the wake of a major hurricane, Johnny Deal, a Miami contractor, is busy with renovations and enjoying new prosperity. But the ambitious plans of a Cuban sugar baron are about to remove the sweet taste of success from Johnny’s life. Hired thugs send Deal’s plans up in flames, but it’s not just the contracting business that is at stake.

Johnny Deal is about to receive a presidential award for heroically rescuing 20 people from Miami waters. At the ceremony, however, as the president’s wife stands in for her husband, terrorists attack the stage. Now Johnny and the First Lady are hostages, and Johnny’s chances to remain a hero are rapidly slipping away. As each scene unfolds, it is sure to satisfy your thirst for brawny, fast-paced suspense. Standiford crafts a fascinating vision of one man determined to keep his equilibrium amidst the twisted residents of the Florida underworld.

While John Deal is busy with his thriving construction business, he is shocked to learn that his closest friend, Barbara, is dead. Although the police tag it as suicide, Deal is suspicious. And when Barbara’s sister, a beautiful film star, disappears, he is driven to find the relationship between the two cases. The link is one that will put Deal in the midst of Chinese gangsters and piles of tainted cash.

Contractor-sleuth John Deal is the last of his kind—a builder who appreciates his craft. His friend Arch Dolan was the last of his kind, too, a Miami bookseller who sold books because he loved them. Now someone has killed him for it. And he's only the first body to fall. In quick succession the CEO of a huge bookstore chain and a local lawyer meet violent ends … and Deal begins finding connections.

Many writers have highlighted South Florida's colorful characters, but John Deal is a remarkably normal man, put in extraordinary situations. Deal has spent much of his adult life trying to rebuild the Miami construction firm that his late father ruined. Cuba has just normalized relations with...