Bøger af Ken Casper

When Julie First's boyfriend proposes marriage on the condition that she devote herself to him and his banking career, she can't run fast enough. She's going to put all her energy into working for the school district, instead, now that she's received her master's degree in education. The job sounds great, except for the final clause in her contract-sign a loyalty oath that promises she won't criticize the administration. Julie finds the demand odd and offensive, but she goes along until she can no longer ignore growing evidence of corruption. Or is it? School board member Rolf Murdock think Julie's concerns are exaggerated, but he'll help her investigate. Although his first wife left him to pursue a career, he's charmed by career woman Julie, as she is by him and his children. Soon they're investigating more than a cover-up.

"We can never escape our yesterdays. They make us who we are today." Like the young of every generation, Bram and Sarah Clyburn are convinced they are unique-that no one has ever felt what they feel for each other. Until Sarah's past threatens to destroy their marriage. When the newly weds announce they're splitting up, Bram's grandparents, Evvie and Edgar, have good reason to think it's a mistake. To prove it they reveal their shocking past and the secret that goes back sixty-five years to the hard times of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the Second World War. It was a time when desperation filled their lives and desperate measures threatened their love for each other. Will love be enough this time to save Bram and Sarah's marriage?

Leanna Cargill is a Damnyankee, but she's also as hardheaded as a Steel Magnolia. After her recent divorce, she's determined to succeed at her new job as an insurance investigator uncover the firebomber of millions of pounds of illegal raw sugar. After all, she has a little girl to protect and provide for. Jackson Fontaine is a Southern gentleman, a sugar plantation owner, a wheeler-dealer, as well as the single dad of a little girl. His parents were recently killed in a private plane crash, his sugar mill blown up, and he's on the brink of bankruptcy. Then there's his eccentric aunt who is convinced the man who jilted her three decades ago is responsible for it all. The girls get along fine. Their parents want to, but for a few doubts and obstacles, like the sudden and unwelcome appearance of Leanna's ex-husband. The result is a decidedly un-civil war.

Family comes first. When Krisanne Blessing receives a call from Drew Hadley, her brother's best friend and the corporate attorney for Blessing Pharmaceuticals, telling her she needs to come home, she knows it must be serious. She and Drew have avoided each other over the past seven years, ever since he jilted her, practically at the altar, for another woman. A widower now with a six-year-old son, Drew has never stopped loving Krissane. He understands why she despises him, nor is she likely for forgive him for what he's about to tell her. But this meeting isn't about them. What they shared so long ago is gone.

Ordinary people can be heroes, like those who adopt children. They extend compassion and hope to the most precious and most vulnerable members of society. Ordinary people with the extraordinary capacity to love. This is the story about one of those heroes, an aging bachelor who has security and comfort but needs more. He tells the heroine, who wants desperately to forget her past, that adopting a young orphan is the best thing he has ever done. And it's true for him and for the millions of people who adopt neglected and unwanted children throughout the world.

This is the third book in the First Family of Texas series. Professor Gideon First has found the woman of his life, and the young widow has accepted his proposal of marriage. Life is good-until he learns that one of his old flames died recently in a car accident and has named him as the father of her baby girl. The DNA test confirms it's true. Lupe Amorado, his fiancée is understandable upset by the news, but she is furious when he tells her he's considering putting the child up for adoption. There goes love; there goes marriage. Gideon discovers he may be pushing the baby carriage alone.

Michael First seems to have everything a man could want-a wife he adores; beautiful children he delights in; loving parents and siblings who live close by the west Texas ranch where he works. Then fate turns his world upside down. Clare, his wife, is killed in a car accident-and when the police find that the brakes were tampered with, they charge him with the crime. As attorney Lara Stovall gathers evidence on his behalf, she discovers some serious cracks in Michael's perfect marriage. She discovers too a simmering attraction to him, which started when she was his girlfriend in high school, before he met and married Clare. The possibility of years in prison, lingering grief and guilt and doubt-that's a lot for any man and woman to overcome. But if they can, Michael and Lara might have a second chance at a first love.

Chief of Police Catherine Tanner has endured very trying time in the past year. Her husband, a man of color, and editor of the Houston Sentinel, died suddenly last year under suspicious circumstances. Her daughter has renounced the married life and joined a convent. The police department is rife with corruption, and now she's learned the raw materials for weapons of mass destruction may have gone missing. Jeff Rowman was a good cop until Catherine fired him for racial profiling. All he wants now is the job he lives and his good name back. In the meantime, he's doing quite well as a private investigator. Imagine the surprise when the very person who destroyed his career comes to him for help.

The First daughter just might have a second chance. Back in hihg school, when she thought she knew everything, Kerry First ditched Craig Robeson at their senior prom and ran off with the class bad boy. It was a big mistake-one of many she would make. Now Craig is back in her life, successful, strikingly handsome, generous and caring. And despite everything he's still attracted to her. They've both grown up in two decades-though they both had to do it the hard way-and they're ready for a deep connection. Except that Kerry's unresolved problems with her family, so uncomfortably close to Craig's own, almost send him running this time-no matter how much he wants to be with her, no matter how much she begs him to stay...

The smuggling of drugs and weapons . . . and a murder. Everything points to a mole in the Tombstone customs office. But when agent Gage Engler goes undercover to investigate, he's shocked to find Jill Manning, the new customs station chief, tops the list of suspects. No one knows that he and Jill were once married, that Jill is the woman he still loves. Or that she holds him responsible for the death of their infant son. The last thing Gage wants is to cause Jill more pain. But his gut says she's a target . . . not a traitor. A target he's determined to protect . .

The only thing Marlee Reid has ever wanted to be is a sportscaster, and by golly, she is. But then bad things happen. People around her change and her aspirations, while never completely going away, become tarnished, and she's forced to make life-altering decisions. Her boss, Renn Davis, the news director, is in the same boat. He's spent all his life in the media, loves the frenetic world of news and sports, of perpetually being in on the action. He's also a man of principles. One is that women don't make good sportscasters. The other is a firm rule-never get involved with a woman in the media. Recent events, however, compel him to rethink both prejudices.

The First family has owned the Number One Ranch in West Texas since the days of the Republic. Until now. Adam First's bitter, alcoholic daughter has just sold controlling interest in the vast spread to a Houston bank. They're dispatching someone to determine if he should continue to manage the multimillion-dollar enterprise. Sheila Malone knows the heartbreak of losing loved ones and property. She also realizes she has to please the bank executive who hired her, if her fledgling consultancy firm is to stay in business. Sure, she'd like to help Adam save his ranch, but will he let her? Will the bank let her? What neither the temperamental rancher nor the opinionated efficiency expert have