Chris Knopf

Sam Acquillo is at the end of the line. A middle-aged corporate dropout living in his dead parents ramshackle cottage in the Hamptons, Sam has abandoned his friends, family and a big-time career to sit on his porch, drink vodka and stare at the Little Peconic Bay. But when the old lady next door ends up floating dead in her bathtub it seems like Sam is the only one who wonders why. Burned-out, busted up and cynical, the ex-engineer, ex-professional...

Crazy weather, crazy artists, organized crime, and digital wizardry all play a role in a murder mystery that could only happen in the Hamptons. It's the worst winter on record. Jackie Swaitkowski has made the transition from lackadaisical, pot-smoking real-estate lawyer to obsessive, pot-smoking criminal defense attorney. And now, not only are there blizzards to contend with, her ne're-do-well client is headed for a first-degree murder rap.

As Sam Acquillo tells us in the early pages of Back Lash, "Not everyone gets to live their adult lives orbiting a central mystery." But that's how it's been for Sam, whose entire existence has been defined by a single, horrific event. Now that event has reached out from the deep past, an unwanted visitor, and Sam is forced to unpack, like a Russian doll, secrets within secrets, each more ominous than the one before. What is revealed would be disturbing...

Peel back the glamour of the fabled Hamptons and you'll find a beautiful place filled with ugly secrets. This is Sam Acquillo's world. Moving effortlessly across the social divide with wry pal Jackie Swaitkowski and rich guy Burton Lewis, the ex-boxer, ex-corporate infighter seems doomed to straddle the thin red line between envy and love, hate and forgiveness, goodness and greed—and sometimes, life and death. Part-time carpenter, full-time drinker...

Sam Acquillo has spent most of his time in the Hamptons hanging out with the other half of the moneyed wonderland cops and bartenders, carpenters, store clerks, and firemen. He couldn't care less about the concerns of the 1 percent, until his best friend Burton Lewis, a certified billionaire, is dragged into a high-profile death investigation. A former corporate superstar brought down by the machinations of the grasping class, Sam's not entirely...

Arthur Cathcart and Natsumi Fitzgerald wanted to believe they were free of the nearly invisible, malignant forces they had pursued, and been pursued by, across continents and oceans. The slightly brain-damaged tech-freak researcher and the blackjack-dealing psychologist had convinced themselves that life aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean, incognito and in love, could be a lasting refuge. The death of that illusion was as brutal as it was abrupt....

Sam Aquillo—ex-boxer, ex-corporate executive, and accidental hero of The Last Refuge—can't seem to stay out of trouble. All he really wants to do is hammer a few nails into his ramshackle cottage, drink a great deal of vodka, and hang out with his dog, Eddie. But when a car bomb outside a trendy waterfront restaurant kills a prominent financial consultant, injuring Sam and his lawyer friend, Jackie, he is drawn into the investigation. Where the...

Organizational psychologist Dr. Waters is a happily solitary guy with a few deep attachments, including to his boss Paresh Rajput, the owner of a thriving hi-tech aerospace company. Until something really bad happens to CEO Rajput, which throws Waters into a lunatic swirl of murderous stalkers, corporate intrigue, amorous female executives, and crafty cops who see the inscrutable psychologist as murder suspect #1. Waters is hardly defenseless. A weight-lifter...

"Deceptively simple and incredibly versatile, the trigger point foam roller is a highly effective self-therapy tool. By following the step-by-step movements in this book, you can maximize its healing potential to alleviate pain, speed recovery, release tension, break up knots, rehabilitate injuries, and increase flexibility"--Page 4 of cover.