Frank Carlson Library

It is the mid-1980s, and a civil war is raging on the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka. Each day, fresh corpses inundate emergency medical clinics-many of them so mutilated that they are unidentifiable and can only be classified as "disappearances." Anil Tissera, a 33-year-old forensic anthropologist born in Sri Lanka and educated abroad, returns to the island as part of a United Nations human rights campaign to prove that mass murders are taking place....

"Jane Ellison is a 'super recognizer' able to identify strangers by the slightest facial details ... When she spies human rights activist and heiress Bella Valencia in a crowded Boston airport, Jane's convinced she's found the person responsible for her sister Kit's disappearance ... Jane is ready to risk everything for the chance to publicly expose Bella's crimes at her upcoming celebrity wedding. But the more she digs into what happened that night,...

"Orphans Gig and Rye Dolan don't have a penny to their names. The brothers work grueling, odd jobs each day just to secure a meal, and spend nights sleeping wherever they can with other day laborers. Twenty-three-year-old Gig is a passionate union man, fighting for fair pay and calling out the corrupt employers who exploit the working class. Eager to emulate his older brother, Rye follows suit, though he can't quite muster Gig's passion for the cause....

This epic novel, based on the author's own experiences in Africa, tells the stories of pilots, aid workers, missionaries, and renegades struggling to relieve the misery wrought by the civil war in Sudan. The hearts of these men and women are in the right place, but as they plunge into a well of moral corruption for which they are ill-prepared, their hidden flaws conspire with circumstances to turn their strengths--bravery, compassion, daring, and...