Pat Jordan, a $50,000 bonus pitcher with the Milwaukee Braves in 1959, first met Tom Seaver, himself a $50,000 bonus pitcher with the New York Mets --- and the greatest pitcher of his generation --- in 1971. Combustible, combative, hilarious and even touching at times, TOM SEAVER AND ME tells the story of the 40-year friendship that followed.

Pat Jordan, a $50,000 bonus pitcher with the Milwaukee Braves in 1959, first met Tom Seaver, himself a $50,000 bonus pitcher with the New York Mets --- and the greatest pitcher of his generation --- in 1971. Combustible, combative, hilarious and even touching at times, TOM SEAVER AND ME tells the story of the 40-year friendship that followed.

The story of a 40-year friendship between two strong-willed, talented men --- one a great success as a baseball pitcher, the other an abject failure.

I tell him what Hemingway said about writing talent, “It’s like a knife blade. If you save it it gets dull and rusty. Better to use it constantly to keep it sharp even if it wears down.”

Tom tilts his head like dogs do when confused by their master. He says, with a small smile, “You just keep thinking, Butch. That’s what you’re good at.”

I say, “I got vision, Sundance, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”

Tom throws again. Fastball, low outside corner to a right handed batter.

I shake my head and say, “If I could have thrown my fastball to that spot, Big Guy, you’d be interviewing me now.”

***

Pat Jordan, a $50,000 bonus pitcher with the Milwaukee Braves in 1959, first met Tom Seaver, himself a $50,000 bonus pitcher with the New York Mets --- and the greatest pitcher of his generation --- in 1971.

Combustible, combative, hilarious and even touching at times, TOM SEAVER AND ME tells the story of the 40-year friendship that followed.

In 1968, two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The only survivors of the brutal massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam’s anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly 10 years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war? And if they do, can they mend their fractured relationship? Or are the wounds from their journeys too deep to heal?

In 1968, two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The only survivors of the brutal massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam’s anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly 10 years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war? And if they do, can they mend their fractured relationship? Or are the wounds from their journeys too deep to heal?

In 1968, two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The only survivors of the brutal massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam’s anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly 10 years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war? And if they do, can they mend their fractured relationship? Or are the wounds from their journeys too deep to heal?

In a stunning departure from her crime thrillers, Libby Fischer Hellmann delves into a universal story about survival, family and the consequences of war.

PEOPLE DIE IN SUNSHINE is a carnival ride through the externally glamorous but internally twisted lives of two people, Frederick and Coco Rothenstein, and their world --- one most of us only know about from reading true-crime stories and news accounts of the lives of the super-rich and entitled dwellers in the bastions of wealth and privilege where families such as the Rothensteins reign. The first four words of Gloria Nagy's scorching, ironic tale of greed, glamour, envy, avarice and the Janus-headed coin of love and hate are: "Money. Money. Money. Money." What Nagy accomplishes in a work of humor, heartbreak, murder and redemption reinforces those four words.

PEOPLE DIE IN SUNSHINE is a carnival ride through the externally glamorous but internally twisted lives of two people, Frederick and Coco Rothenstein, and their world --- one most of us only know about from reading true-crime stories and news accounts of the lives of the super-rich and entitled dwellers in the bastions of wealth and privilege where families such as the Rothensteins reign. The first four words of Gloria Nagy's scorching, ironic tale of greed, glamour, envy, avarice and the Janus-headed coin of love and hate are: "Money. Money. Money. Money." What Nagy accomplishes in a work of humor, heartbreak, murder and redemption reinforces those four words.

New York Times bestselling author Gloria Nagy sliced through the social fabric of the North Shore of Long Island in A HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS, and now she aims her razor sharp talents on Miami --- the new hot spot for glamour, greed and gore.

The Sunshine State will need a far higher level of SPF!

PEOPLE DIE IN SUNSHINE is a carnival ride through the externally glamorous but internally twisted lives of two people, Frederick and Coco Rothenstein, and their world --- one most of us only know about from reading true-crime stories and news accounts of the lives of the super-rich and entitled dwellers in the bastions of wealth and privilege where families such as the Rothensteins reign. The first four words of Gloria Nagy's scorching, ironic tale of greed, glamour, envy, avarice and the Janus-headed coin of love and hate are: "Money. Money. Money. Money." What Ms. Nagy accomplishes in a work of humor, heartbreak, murder and redemption reinforces those four words. A theme reflecting the world we have created that rises and falls with the same quite simple motivation that has driven every facet of human life since man stood upright. It is not the world we want to see, but it is the real world. And where better to set a novel that is as much a social chronicle of our times as it is a gripping tale of the maze like search for a killer than in Miami?

The Miami of the 21st century is a glittering city in the sun that has become a symbol of the new American Dream --- retirement ease, new beginnings, or a haven for sketchy characters with dubious histories and too much money to spend. In a large cast of characters diverse in ethnicity, wealth, morality and status, Ms. Nagy shines her own unique sunlight on a cross section of this city of multi-cultural strivers and survivors, finding humanity in even the most flawed inhabitants of her singular human circus. This is a robust and tightly constructed romp through her slice of the sludge beneath the shimmering sand, and, as in all of her work, she sees and she sears.