Donna Ward

Sandra Benigno is afraid that her Mafia Capo husband has learned the truth-that their son, Billy, is actually the love child of a rival mob boss. Now, he's putting Billy in the line of fire by bringing him into the Family business. Even worse, Billy's been fooling around with his half-sister, the rival Capo's daughter. What's a mother to do? The year before, at an Arthur Avenue bakery, rookie FBI Agent Mark Oberlin offered Sandra help if she ever needed it, so when she gets wind of her husband's newest scheme-where Billy will play a key role-she pleads with Oberlin to stop it. A Russian auto theft ring has found a priceless Faberge egg in a car at their Brooklyn chop shop. Problem is, the KGB has been snooping around on New York City soil, determined to repatriate looted Russian treasure. The car thieves need to get rid of it, fast-and this is why they've agreed to sell the egg to Victor, who secretly plans to "buy out" the whole Russian operation. Oberlin's first move is to clear the case with his boss, Ken Schneider, who's vowed to bring down these last two New York crime families before he retires. Next, he enlists the unique talents of the OC's Top Echelon Informants-Benny Cataldo and Carmine Rizzo. But these two have motives of their own. What's in it for them, and how do they stay alive as they play each side against the other? And none of them-cops, criminals or informants-are aware that two ruthless, and very lethal, female KGB agents are also out there, always one step ahead.

It's the end of the tourist season in The Hamptons, and things quiet down-until prominent landowner Berle Avery is found dead at The Ocean Club Spa. His massage therapist is convinced he was murdered and asks local P.I. Anna Bartel for help. Anna accepts the case, even though the police, the coroner and Avery's own doctor say there's no evidence of foul play. Meanwhile, Special Agent Mark Oberlin has been spending time in the pine barrens of Montauk, where he's hidden Nardo, his informant and key witness in a drug racketeering case. What Oberlin doesn't know is that Jim Ryan, a DEA agent who shares Oberlin's FBI office, is on the Cartel's payroll. His assignment is to track Nardo down and make sure he never testifies. Nardo's sudden decision to relocate brings them all together. Unaware of the danger he's in Nardo abandons his bare-bones digs at Phil's Piney Acres for his ex-wife's nearby country house. Anna is convinced there's a link between his disappearance and Avery's death. Her sleuthing takes her from Montauk's beachfront mansions and resorts, to the sprawling vineyards of the North Fork, but as she closes in on her murder suspects, Nardo manages to stay one step ahead of her, Oberlin, and the increasingly desperate Agent Jim Ryan-who now has Anna in his sights as well. What began as a game of cat and mouse, is now a matter of life and death.

Astonishing. Luminous. A book about being human.She I Dare Not Name is a compelling collection of fiercely intelligent, deeply intimate, lyrical reflections on the life of a woman who stands on the threshold between two millennia. Both manifesto and confession, this moving memoir explores the meaning and purpose Donna Ward discovered in a life lived entirely without a partner and children.The book describes what it is like to live on the edge of a world built in the shape of couples and families. Rippling through these pages is the way a spinster - or a bachelor, or any of us for that matter - contends with the prejudice and stigma of being different.With courage and astounding honesty Donna uncovers the challenge of living with more solitude than anticipated and what it is like to walk the road through midlife and beyond alone. And she reveals how she found home and discovered herself within it.Funny, sharp, wise and wry, She I Dare Not Name shows how reading saved this spinster's life, and how friends and writing and walking brought a contentment and sense of achievement she never thought possible.'With a devastatingly clear-eyed honesty, the word Ward dares to name is "spinster", and this meditative collection of essays spin their own spell, making a deep dive into the world of female solitude in all its guises. She lays it out like a calm tarot reading: feminism, courage, silence, loneliness, grief, recovery and the power of the generative idea, as well as all the labels that come with carving out your own path of self-definition and self-determination.' - Cate Kennedy, author of The World Beneath