Books with author Thomas Kirkwood

Over 156,000 soldiers took part in D-Day. This is the story of one man’s war.Staff Sergeant Charlie Manning is a twenty-two-year-old pilot in Britain’s Glider Pilot Regiment, who finds himself responsible for safely landing thirty elite paratroopers, in one of the most daring operations of the Second World War.All Charlie wants to do is get through this battle and make it home, but when he is distracted by other thoughts, he puts his own life at risk, as well as the other men in his Horsa glider. On the eve of being sent to war, any young man would relish in an encouraging pep talk from his father, but what Charlie received instead, haunts him.Caught in the middle of the Normandy landings, which he doesn’t think he is courageous enough for, Charlie must battle with his own mind to stay on task.Will he manage to stay focused? Will he land his glider safely? Or will his thoughts get the better of him? Don’t miss The Silent Invader, the first book in the ‘Gliders over Normandy’ series by Thomas Wood. If you usually like fast-paced, war thrillers by people like Andy McNab or Chris Ryan, then this book will keep you racing through the pages!

A lucky hit by an obscure Italian geneticist produces a virus lethal to the opium poppy. It's like winning the lottery, thinks Noto, who takes his dangerous creation to Tommaso Scalzone, the Italian Interior Minister and head of the national police. Lucky they're fellow Sicilians, Noto muses. Lucky they know each other from childhood. Scalzone, brilliant and unassailable, will know where to sell the virus that will wipe out heroin, do it safely, and make them both rich beyond measure. He has no idea that Scalzone's immense power comes from the Mafia as well as the police, that Scalzone is one of the great criminal minds of our time and that Noto will lose his lottery ticket and his life. In possession of the virus, Scalzone develops a diabolical plan. He will wipe out the world's opium crop, an anti-terrorist coup for which the US will receive credit - but not before he has genetically engineered an opium poppy both immune to the virus and sterile. Seeds to the sterile hybrid, easily transportable to any corner of the globe, will give him an airtight monopoly over opium and its derivatives for years to come. Al Qaeda, the Taliban and others, threatened by the loss their cash crop, will pay his exorbitant price. Another defeat for the US; another triumph for terrorism. And behind it all, on a stage that spans half of Europe, is Scalzone and his cast of thousands. But wait. There is still an obstacle. Scalzone does not have an opium plant resistant to the virus, let alone a sterile hybrid. There is, however, one scientist who can give him what he needs: a genetic engineer at the University of Paris named Claude Armand. To carry out the necessary kidnapping, he relies on the Mafia pezzonovante with whom he is closest, Don Pippo Greco. The Don farms out the job to his hotshot nephew, Gianni (pronounced Johnny). Scalzone, in a fine expression of his shrewd criminal mind and brutal methods, enlists the support of a terrified Swiss German, the owner of a near-bankrupt genetics lab that has done secret military work in the past. Blossoming simultaneously in France is a passionate clandestine love affair between a Bordeaux aristocrat and a famous actress: Chantal Armand, the beautiful married daughter of Claude Armand. Chantal, on a visit to her ancestral home, is swept up in the kidnapping of her father and lands with him in the underground lab in Switzerland. After exhaustive investigations by the police, they are pronounced dead - thanks to the ingenious planning and execution of the crime. Jean-François Duret returns to his life in the countryside outside Bordeaux, hopelessly bereft after losing the only woman he has ever loved. By the time he discovers a clue that Chantal might still be alive, she has become the object of Scalzone's perverse lust. But she has not lost her passion for Jean-François. Indeed, she has been working tirelessly on an escape, spinning a web for Gianni and her other guards with the delicacy and determination that have made her a master of the theater. She deceives for Jean-François; Jean-François deceives for her; Scalzone deceives for power and money; Lichtheim, the Swiss German, deceives . . . himself. The search, then the chase, for Chantal begins. Everything is movement and color, from Paris to the stark beauty of the Alps, from Milan to the incongruously lovely Sicilian estate of Tommaso Scalzone. As layers of deception fall away, the air trembles with unpredictable and often gruesome change. But one constant remains - love. Jean-François finds Chantal at last, but must then face Scalzone in a conclusion that is as terrifying as it is unforgettable. And the all-important clue that puts Jean-François on Chantal's trail? No, no, not here. For that luscious tidbit, one must read THE POPPY BROKER

"A moving love story as well as a novel filled with action and suspense&strong and sympathetic characters&LeCarr? Follett, Ludlum and others in this select group are going to have to step aside&Thomas Kirkwood is a writer to get excited about." -Rocky Mountain News"Solid tension, sudden danger, fierce action&catches fire." -Kirkus Reviews

Whenever Kirk would fly DeHavilland Otter N6868B his adult children would say to their kids, "There goes Grandpa," as he would fly by. It wasn't long before the kids would hear an airplane and immediately look to see if it was "Grandpa's Plane." The story came about as Kirk heard accounts of his grandchildren getting excited as his airplane would fly overhead and hearing the grandkids say, "We saw you fly by today Grandpa." Constant requests for rides from the grandkids cemented the storyline.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

"The Quiet Assassin" is an unusual and original thriller that occurs in East Berlin during the cold war. The heroine Käte Frassek, like Lucy in Ken Follet's "Eye of the Needle," is an unparalleled and intriguing woman protagonist. Frassek, a respected scientist, leads a double life and, with pen in hand, becomes the quiet assassin. Her main goal is to begin a revolution which would ultimately free the German people from a police state. She intends to begin this revolt by killing the head of the East German secret police. An enduring love develops between Käte and an American physician, but not even this intense love can stop Käte from her mission. After twenty years of plotting against the repressive regime, the end is chilling for Käte and the ones she loves.

Excerpt from The Force of Example; Or, the History of Henry and Caroline: Written for the Instruction and Amusement of Young PersonsAdolphus Henley had been fent to a dozen different fchools, but con trived to give fuch melancholy ac counts to.bis mother of the treatment he had received, that he never fiaid 'above fix weeks at any of them, and at length it was refolved that he fhould have a mailer at home. Accordingly a tutor was engaged, whofe embarraf fed circuml'tances compelled him to agree to every propofal that Mrs. Henley thought proper to make; but the molt important article which was fiipulated between them was, that puni/bment was to be 7014151 excluded, and in/t'ruflz'on only offered, when her.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Excerpt from The Force of Example; Or, the History of Henry and Caroline: Written for the Instruction and Amusement of Young PersonsAdolphus Henley had been fent to a dozen different fchools, but con trived to give fuch melancholy ac counts to.bis mother of the treatment he had received, that he never fiaid 'above fix weeks at any of them, and at length it was refolved that he fhould have a mailer at home. Accordingly a tutor was engaged, whofe embarraf fed circuml'tances compelled him to agree to every propofal that Mrs. Henley thought proper to make; but the molt important article which was fiipulated between them was, that puni/bment was to be 7014151 excluded, and in/t'ruflz'on only offered, when her.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A beautiful French actress, a violent Mafia kidnapping and a lover’s courageous attempt to rescue her . . .From the pink cliffs of Brittany to the painted wagons of Sicily, from the slums of Paris to the medieval estates of Europe, this action-packed romantic thriller moves at breakneck speed through a land of international crime, assassination, murder, deception, conspiracy and heroism. The kidnapping of French actress, Chantal Armand, forms the hub of a wheel around which art and science, sacrifice and arrogance, love and hate spin at a dizzying pace. The result is a page-turner of rare intensity.The Poppy Broker leads us into the world of Tommaso Scalzone, a man as brilliant as he is glacial. Scalzone is a government agent, specifically the interior minister of Italy. He is also a criminal of epic proportion, using the Mafia for protection while he forces kidnapped scientists to create what he wants: a genetically engineered opium poppy that will give him control of the world’s heroin trade. Chief among his academics is Professor Armand, Chantal’s father. Custody of both father and daughter offer Scalzone every conceivable means of cruelty and psychological manipulation. But Chantal is not helpless. She is not only a gifted actress on stage but also in captivity. Scalzone’s obsession with his criminal enterprise is diluted by his growing desire for a women who seems to share his feelings. The complex interplay of goals and emotions spawns an unforgettable cast of characters ─ Nadja, a sexy teenage runaway; Don Greco, a Mafia boss with a neck like a stack of tires; Gianni, a thin-hipped Ferrari-driving Italian hotshot who fancies himself Don Greco’s successor and Scalzone’s equal; and Louis Pagnol, a hero in waiting.The French police, having put its best investigators on Chantal’s case, come away empty-handed. She is declared dead by the authorities. But Jean-François, an aristocrat and art collector, refuses to abandon his continent-wide search for the love of his life. He comes across a clue that may or may not be significant. What was to this point a nail-biting psychological thriller now becomes a mystery. Can Jean-François solve it? Will his love for Chantal lead him on a relentless but futile quest, or can he prevail against the odds? The Poppy Broker will allow you no rest until you learn the answer.EDITORIAL REVIEWS (The Critics on Kirkwood’s Writing)"Solid tension, sudden danger, fierce action . . . catches fire.” — Kirkus Reviews"A moving love story as well as a novel filled with action and suspense ... strong sympathetic characters ... Thomas Kirkwood is a writer to get excited about." — Rocky Mountain News"Nail-biting . . . Perfect!!” — Norfolk Virginian Pilot"Powerful … Truly riveting!" — Chattanooga News-Free Press"A bubbling thriller . . . The tension builds.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer"Suspense and intrigue … A classic adventure." — Mobile Press Register"Wryly drawn characters...absorbing."— Kirkus Reviews “Tense drama…spectacular.”— St. Louis Post Dispatch “Riveting and fascinating.”— Lerner Newspapers “An absorbing tale…the stuff of which movies are made.”— Rocky Mountain News "Crackles … a rousing good job." — Akron Beacon-Journal