Robert M Smith

The year is 1995. Country copper Greg Bowker is the surprise appointment to the Homicide Squad, much to the chagrin of more senior applicants. Teamed with one of the few female detectives in the squad who also happens to be the chief commissioner's daughter, Bowker inherits the inquiry into the murder of a high-profile investigative reporter. His partner's critical injury in a car crash, and a second murder, combine to make Bowker's appointment a baptism of fire. His inquiries gradually unravel a tangle of misdeeds and lead him to a twenty-year-old unsolved murder, and to a cover up that threatens the very foundations of the police force.

Book 1 in the Greg Bowker murder/mystery series IT IS THE EARLY 1980'S. Greg Bowker is a young senior constable forcibly transferred to a one-officer station in a remote and dying Mallee town. Welcomed by a brutal combination of heat, dust, isolation and primitive amenities, the new officer expects to waste years of his career in 'purgatory'. He is greeted with warmth by the community but becomes increasingly worried by the behaviour of two delinquent teenagers, one of whose family history hides a secret he can't resist investigating. A subsequent disappearance and murder set a new challenge for the young officer and leads him down a path into an unspeakable world of darkness and deception. Purgatory may well reside within the quiet town...

Book 2 in the Greg Bowker murder/mystery seriesIt is now 2016 and Greg Bowker has risen through the ranks to Detective Inspector with the Homicide Squad...Thirty-one years ago, Bowker solved the brutal murder of a teenage schoolgirl while a Senior Constable in the one-copper Mallee town of Manangatang. Now, he must return to the area to investigate another killing. The victim: the original killer who had just been released following his lengthy prison sentence.The scene of the crime: the exact location the schoolgirl had been murdered years earlier.Bowker is sure the two murders are connected and with his knowledge from the previous case, compiling his first list of suspects proves initially straight-forward. Despite the familiarity of the case, there is a whole new set of challenges for Greg Bowker, and he ultimately must ask; are there others involved...?

From the best-selling author of 'Purgatory', comes the sequel 'The Price of Justice'. Thirty-one years ago, Bowker solved the brutal murder of a teenage schoolgirl as a senior constable in the one-copper Mallee town of Manangatang. Now, he must return to the area to investigate another killing. The victim: the original killer, who had just been released, following his lengthy prison sentence. The scene of the crime: the exact location the schoolgirl had been murdered years earlier. Bowker is sure the two murders are connected. With his knowledge from the previous case, compiling his first list of suspects proves initially straightforward. Despite the familiarity of the case, however, there is a whole new set of challenges. Ultimately he must ask - are there others involved...? "From a master writer of crime as proven in 'Purgatory', comes the next instalment and wow, what a great read. Tight plot and fast action blended with indelible characters who make themselves all seem guilty until the very end... Brilliant and highly recommend..."

IT IS THE EARLY 1980'S.Greg Bowker is a young senior constable forcibly transferred to a one-officer station in a remote and dying Mallee town. Welcomed by a brutal combination of heat, dust, isolation and primitive amenities, the new officer expects to waste years of his career in 'purgatory'. He is greeted with warmth by the community but becomes increasingly worried by the behaviour of two delinquent teenagers, one of whose family history hides a secret he cannot resist investigating. A subsequent disappearance and murder set a new challenge for the young officer that leads him down a path into an unspeakable world of darkness and deception

Greg Bowker is back with a new murder mystery to be solved...Detective Inspector Greg Bowker must travel to the town of his childhood to investigate the murder of an elderly man, one who happens to be Greg's old school teacher. His visit reignites boyhood memories of he and his younger brother discovering a blood-covered body on the slopes of a stony, scrubby hill known to those in the area as the Granite. As the investigation evolves, Bowker and his partner become convinced that the old teacher's demise is somehow linked to the death of the man on the Granite almost four decades prior. But are their instincts correct....?

Four million people in nearly 200 countries read The New York Times. Of these, many are opinion-leaders. Journalists everywhere read the paper to get a supposedly objective view of the news and to learn what The Times thinks is important. But they aren't getting that kind of view - no matter how many house ads The Times runs proclaiming its attachment to rock-solid truth. A Times former White House and investigative correspondent, Robert M. Smith, discloses in Suppressed: Confessions of a Correspondent how some stories make it to print, some do not, how the filters work, and how the paper suppressed the most important U.S. political story of the day--Watergate. Smith also shows how the paper has now stepped into the ring and begun duking it out with the President, instead of staying outside the ring and neutrally reporting what it sees. The book argues that the paper would be far more effective in countering and exposing the President if it had remained true to its century-old tradition and remained neutral -- that is, remained credible (as it so loudly maintains that it is). The book also discloses that The Times assigned Smith to hire a reporter of a particular partisan stripe; that the paper's business journalists refused to cover negative stories about business, and that its Pentagon correspondent refused to cover the My Lai massacre committed by American troops in Vietnam. Written with candor and humor, Suppressed traces a young investigative reporter's arc from naivete to cynicism, from covering the White House to leaving the paper for Yale Law School and ultimately becoming a barrister in London and teaching mediation at Oxford.

Over the past twenty five years the Commission on Equilibrium Data of the Analytical Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has been sponsoring a noncritical compilation of metal complex formation constants and related equilibrium constants. This work was extensive in scope and resulted in publication of two large volumes of Stability Constants by the Chemical Society (London). The first volume, edited by L. G. Sillen (for inorganic ligands) and by A. E. Martell (for organic ligands), was published in 1964 and covered the literature through 1962. The second volume, subtitled Supplement No. 1, edited by L. G. Sillen and E. Hogfeldt (for inorganic ligands), and A. E. Martell and R. M. Smith (for organic ligands), was published in 1971 and covered the literature up to 1969. These two large compilations attempted to cover all papers in the field related to metal complex equilibria (heats, entropies, and free energies). Most recently a noncritical compilation of organic ligands by D. D. Perrin (Pergamon Press) extended coverage of the literature through 1973 and a similar volume for inorganic ligands by E. Hogfeldt covered through 1974. Since it was the policy of the Commission during that period to avoid decisions concerning the quality and reliability of the published work, th~ compilation would frequently contain from ten to twenty values for a single equilibrium constant.

Here's the story of how a handful of young Americans, fighting with improvised equipment, commanded the air against superior enemy forces and won! Written by a radio operator who served as a member of the AVG (American Volunteer Group) throughout their existence, this fascinating, intimate story of General Claire Lee Chennault's "Flying Tigers" is loaded with original photographs and numerous first-hand accounts from the author's personal diary. It's all here - the whole story of how the AVG shot down over 650 Japanese plane using obsolete P-40s and a communications network that covered China with a protective "umbrella." This ground based radio network (in which the author operated) kept the pilots so well-informed of enemy air activity that they were seldom surprised by Japanese attacks. Enjoyable to read, this memoir will give you a taste of the "local flavor" of life in China while under Japanese attack. You'll find a musing anecdotes and accurate descriptions of the author's duty as a radio operator as well as the wartime activities of other AVG member. Now, the complete story of the AVG - the deadliest, most efficient group of fighter pilots and support personnel ever assembled - is brought to life again through original photographs and behind the scenes descriptions! Robert M. Smith was a sergeant-air mechanic first class for the U.S. Air Force when the recruiters arrived on base looking for volunteers for the Chinese Air Force. He was discharged from the Air Force and went to China to join the American Volunteer Group, "THe Flying Tigers." When the AVG disbanded in July, 1942 he re-enlisted as a technical sergeant and retured to China with the Army Airways Communications System. Presently he is the treasurer and on the executive committee of the American Volunteer Group Association.