Scott E. Sundby

Mid-life crises are hard, especially for drug lord Diego Velasquez who has lost his mojo and faces the imminent collapse of his empire. If, as in the past, ruthlessness, bribery, and a few well-timed 'disappearances' of key competitors would restore the family's fortunes, he could turn to his son and heir-apparent Carlos. The enemy this time, however, is American law enforcement's new-found virtuousness following 9/11. Only an ingenious plan can save the day, and it falls to his youngest son, Esteban, the "black sheep" who spurned the family business to pursue his love of literature, to become the unlikely savior.

Wagering the last of the family's dwindling assets, Esteban stages a poetry conference – Wordsworth in Bogotá – as the way to smuggle cocaine into the States. The plan must fool the Velasquez family's nemesis – grizzled DEA agent Bronson Attles and the Poetry Slam Taskforce that he has formed to take them down – while successfully navigating the jealousies and insecurities of the professors who will be the unwitting couriers. To make his plan work, Esteban turns to a talented fellow graduate student, Moira O'Shaughnessy, as his intellectual consigliore. A no-nonsense individual who has largely given up on the world and love, Moira not only must decide how far she'll go in helping Esteban, but what to do about Percy Billings, a brilliant academic with a Walter Mitty belief that he was meant to be a man of action rather than letters. 

As Esteban and his father engage in a cat-and-mouse game with the Drug Enforcement Agency, a new appreciation for each other emerges. With Esteban's plan coming to its climax, the kaleidoscope takes another surprising turn, causing friendships, romances, and family ties to tumble into new patterns once again.

Unafraid to have fun with the characters and plot, WORDSWORTH IN BOGOTÁ is crime fiction reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen and TV shows like Ozark and Better Call Saul. One might also give a hat tip to The Godfather if Mario Puzo had written with a sense of humor.

READ ADVANCE REVIEWS OF WORDSWORTH IN BOGOTÁ

With a life in the balance, a jury convicts a man of murder and now has to decide whether he should be put to death. Twelve people now face a momentous choice.

Bringing drama to life, A Life and Death Decision gives unique insight into how a jury deliberates. We feel the passions, anger, and despair as the jurors grapple with legal, moral, and personal dilemmas. The jurors' voices are compelling. From the idealist to the "holdout," the individual stories―of how and why they voted for life or death―drive the narrative. The reader is right there siding with one or another juror in this riveting read.

From movies to novels to television, juries fascinate. Focusing on a single case, A Life and Death Decision sheds light on broader issues, including the roles of race, class, and gender in the justice system. With death penalty cases consistently in the news, this is an important window on how real jurors deliberate about a pressing national issue.

The town of Cowlick is a small, peaceful town whose barber creates works of art atop the local folks' heads when it is time for a haircut. Peaceful, that is, until another barber, Buzzsaw Bart, arrives in town. Is there room in Cowlick for only one barber? Only a haircutting showdown at high noon will decide who walks away the winner and who will be cut down to size. Part of the Math Adventure picture book series, everyone discovers that scale drawing can be the secret to success.