Kirjahaku

Sylvia and Kath, two active, gray-haired women, one a widowed artist, and the other an autistic intellectual, put down their paint brush, binoculars, and guidebook projects to investigate mysterious happenings in Yellowstone Park. Along the way, they encounter the deep conflict that exists in the park between preservation and public access, since humans have supplanted the gray wolf as top predator of the domain. They, their friends and family, become embroiled in the local controversies between individual liberty and balancing the ecosystem, while the overlapping dominions of state, federal, and local agencies further complicate matters, forcing them to contend with the authority of young park rangers, the local sheriff, and the FBI to solve a murder conspiracy that leads all the way to the governor's mansion.

A number of young survivors of the Yugoslav wars of secession are determined to help bring war criminals to justice. Untrained and unauthorized, they work independently, each devising their own way of collecting incriminating evidence. Risking their lives, they spy, record testimonies of torture victims, and track fugitives as far as Eastern Oregon. The mix of romance, assassin's bullets, and Balkan?/?cowboy culture clashes keep the narrative moving.This complex story of international intrigue follows the historical events of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s to the desolate wilderness of the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge. The preface and epilogue summarize the Balkan tragedy for the reader.

Die Birken tells the story of an apartment building of that name (The Birches) and the East Berliners living there between the 1930s and 1960s, some of whom survived World War II only to fall subject to the Russians and another ideology-communism. Their new challenge is to maintain their well-being, their personal integrity, their sense of humor, and their humanity, all while avoiding the pitfalls of a divided city and Stasi surveillance. In the aftermath of war, new relationships are created, families are reconfigured, and what were formerly ordinary trees, like birches, become cherished.

Woven into two parallel stories, Putin's retaliation against a Chechen war journalist extends to a homeowners association in San Diego. Patchy lawns and dogs off leashes diminish in importance when Quietwater discovers espionage and a murder in its midst. An HOA fine cannot stop an assassination. Perhaps, love and the good detective work on the part of Thelma Lee of the San Diego Police Department can.