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Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created, William Mulholland's Los Angeles aqueduct, a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today. In 1907, Irish immigrant William Mulholland conceived and built one of the greatest civil engineering feats in history: the aqueduct that carried water 223 miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Los Angeles, allowing this small, resource-challenged desert city to grow into a modern global metropolis. Drawing on new research, Les Standiford vividly captures the larger-then-life engineer and the breathtaking scope of his six-year, $23 million project that would transform a region, a state, and a nation at the dawn of its greatest century. With energy and colorful detail, Water to the Angels brings to life the personalities, politics, and power, including bribery, deception, force, and bicoastal financial warfare, behind this dramatic event. At a time when the importance of water is being recognized as never before, considered by many experts to be the essential resource of the twenty-first century, Water to the Angels brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era, the might of a larger than life individual, and the scale of a priceless construction project, and sheds critical light on a past that offers insights for our future. Water to the Angels includes 8 pages of photographs.
Les Standiford (Author), Robert Fass (Narrator)
Audiobook
Washington Burning: How a Frenchman's Vision of Our Nation's Capital Survived Congress, the Founding
The dramatic story of how Washington, D.C., was rebuilt after being burned by British troops in 1814, and how the birth of the capital reflected the birth of the nation.
Les Standiford (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)
Audiobook
If you like audiobooks laced with dark, gritty suspense, you won't be disappointed by this addition to the adventures of Johnny Deal. Set in Miami, each novel in Les Standiford's gripping series glows with the heat of danger and deception. In the wake of a major hurricane, Johnny Deal, a Miami contractor, is busy with renovations and enjoying new prosperity. But the ambitious plans of a Cuban sugar baron are about to remove the sweet taste of success from Johnny's life. Hired thugs send Deal's plans up in flames, but it's not just the contracting business that is at stake. Johnny's wife and infant daughter are in danger, too. As Johnny struggles to outwit a villain whose style adds a new definition to cruelty, he is caught between anger and guilt, violence and manipulation. Get ready for a listening experience that will scorch your ears. Reminiscent of James W. Hall's work, Raw Deal is pure Florida noir.
Les Standiford (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator)
Audiobook
Growing numbers of fans are relishing Les Standiford's novels for their tight blend of vivid crime drama and gritty characters. With Presidential Deal, the award-winning author has hit the best-seller lists with this thriller from his Deal series, which includes Raw Deal (RB# 95176) and Done Deal (RB# 95309). Johnny Deal is about to receive a presidential award for heroically rescuing 20 people from Miami waters. At the ceremony, however, as the president's wife stands in for her husband, terrorists attack the stage. Now Johnny and the First Lady are hostages, and Johnny's chances to remain a hero are rapidly slipping away. As each scene unfolds, it is sure to satisfy your thirst for brawny, fast-paced suspense. Taking his place in the company of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, and James W. Hall, Standiford crafts a fascinating vision of one man determined to keep his equilibrium amidst the twisted residents of the Florida underworld. Narrator Ron McLarty deftly voices Johnny Deal's courage and ironic sense of humor.
Les Standiford (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator)
Audiobook
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation, probably to ease his conscience. Frick's reply: Tell him that I'll meet him in hell. It is a fitting epitaph. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, a time when Horatio Alger preached the gospel of upward mobility and expansionism went hand in hand with optimism, Meet You in Hell is a classic tale of two men who embodied the best and worst of American capitalism. Standiford conjures up the majesty and danger of steel manufacturing, the rough-and-tumble of late-nineteenth-century big business, and the fraught relationship of the world's richest man and the ruthless coke magnate to whom he entrusted his companies. Enamored of Social Darwinism, the emerging school of thought that applied the notion of survival of the fittest to human society, both Carnegie and Frick would introduce revolutionary new efficiencies and meticulous cost control to their enterprises, and would quickly come to dominate the world steel market. But their partnership had a dark side, revealed most starkly by their brutal handling of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. When Frick, acting on Carnegie's orders to do whatever was necessary, unleashed three hundred Pinkerton detectives, the result was the deadliest clash between management and labor in U.S. history. WHILE BLOOD FLOWED, FRICK SMOKED ran one newspaper headline. The public was outraged. An anarchist tried to assassinate Frick. Even today, the names Carnegie and Frick cannot be uttered in some union-friendly communities. Resplendent with tales of backroom chicanery, bankruptcy, philanthropy, and personal idiosyncrasy, Meet You in Hell is a fitting successor to Les Standiford's masterly Last Train to Paradise. Artfully weaving the relationship of these titans through the larger story of a young nation's economic rise, Standiford has created an extraordinary work of popular history. From the Hardcover edition.
Les Standiford (Author), John Dossett (Narrator)
Audiobook
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed
Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford's fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller and the true mastermind behind Standard Oil, concocted the dream of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal. The financiers considered the project and said, Unthinkable. The engineers pondered the problems and from all came one verdict, Impossible. . . . But build it they did, and the railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for twenty-two years. Once dismissed as Flagler's Folly, it was heralded as the Eighth Wonder of the World until a will even greater than Flagler's rose up in opposition. In 1935, a hurricane of exceptional force, which would be dubbed the Storm of the Century, swept through the tiny islands, killing some 700 residents and workmen and washing away all but one sixty-foot section of track, on which a 320,000-pound railroad engine stood and gripped its rails as if the gravity of Jupiter were pressing upon it. Standiford brings the full force and fury of this storm to terrifying life. In spinning his saga of the railroad's construction, Standiford immerses us in the treacherous world of the thousands of workers who beat their way through infested swamps, lived in fragile tent cities on barges anchored in the midst of daunting stretches of ocean, and suffered from a remarkable succession of three ominous hurricanes that killed many and washed away vast stretches of track. Steadfast through every setback, Flagler inspired a loyalty in his workers so strong that even after a hurricane dislodged one of the railroad's massive pilings, casting doubt over the viability of the entire project, his engineers refused to be beaten. The question was no longer Could it be done? but Can we make it to Key West on time? to allow Flagler to ride the rails of his dream. Last Train to Paradise celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature's wrath.From the Hardcover edition.
Les Standiford (Author), Richmond Hoxie (Narrator)
Audiobook
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed
Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford's fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller and the true mastermind behind Standard Oil, concocted the dream of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal. The financiers considered the project and said, Unthinkable. The engineers pondered the problems and from all came one verdict, Impossible. . . . But build it they did, and the railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for twenty-two years. Once dismissed as Flagler's Folly, it was heralded as the Eighth Wonder of the World until a will even greater than Flagler's rose up in opposition. In 1935, a hurricane of exceptional force, which would be dubbed the Storm of the Century, swept through the tiny islands, killing some 700 residents and workmen and washing away all but one sixty-foot section of track, on which a 320,000-pound railroad engine stood and gripped its rails as if the gravity of Jupiter were pressing upon it. Standiford brings the full force and fury of this storm to terrifying life. In spinning his saga of the railroad's construction, Standiford immerses us in the treacherous world of the thousands of workers who beat their way through infested swamps, lived in fragile tent cities on barges anchored in the midst of daunting stretches of ocean, and suffered from a remarkable succession of three ominous hurricanes that killed many and washed away vast stretches of track. Steadfast through every setback, Flagler inspired a loyalty in his workers so strong that even after a hurricane dislodged one of the railroad's massive pilings, casting doubt over the viability of the entire project, his engineers refused to be beaten. The question was no longer Could it be done? but Can we make it to Key West on time? to allow Flagler to ride the rails of his dream. Last Train to Paradise celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature's wrath.From the Hardcover edition.
Les Standiford, Les Staniford (Author), Del Roy (Narrator)
Audiobook
Many writers have highlighted South Florida's colorful characters, but John Deal is a remarkably normal man, put in extraordinary situations. Deal has spent much of his adult life trying to rebuild the Miami construction firm that his late father ruined. Cuba has just normalized relations with the United States, and when the possibility of a major project there arises, he can't help being intrigued - only to find that he has been lured to Havana for another, far more dangerous purpose: to help spring an American prisoner from a Castro jail. Deal wants nothing to do with it, until he discovers the identity of the prisoner: a man closer to him than he could have possibly imagined, and the holder of secrets many groups would kill for... "[The John Deal series] is one of the best-written, most completely satisfying series currently being produced." (St. Petersburg Times)
Les Standiford (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)
Audiobook
Les Standiford has won the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction. Done Deal is filled with gripping characters, unforgettable encounters and unexpected twists. As the Miami sun shines down on a brutal world of corruption and violence, Johnny Deal is salvaging what is left of his family's contracting business. His four-plex will be completed once he pays off a few more inspectors, and he is rejoicing in his wife's pregnancy. But he's about to find himself standing in the way of investors who will do anything, and eliminate anyone, that keeps them from the property they want. Fast-paced, gritty, and tough, Les Standiford's novel grabs you by the throat and shakes away all daydreams of paradise. Ron McLarty's skillful performance brings out the full range of emotional surprises and physical conflicts that assault Johnny Deal.
Les Standiford (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator)
Audiobook
Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led
A groundbreaking narrative-a historical political thriller-that explores the role of the Sons of Liberty in the American Revolution. More than two hundred years ago, a group of British colonists in America decided that the conditions under which they were governed had become intolerable. Angry and frustrated that King George III and the British Parliament had ignored their lawful complaints and petitions, they decided to take action. Knowing that their deeds-often directed at individuals and property-were illegal, and punishable by imprisonment and even death, these agitators plotted and conducted their missions in secret to protect their identities as well as the identities of those who supported them. Calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, they gathered together in a radical society committed to imposing forcible change. Those determined men-including second cousins Samuel and John Adams, Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, and John Hancock-saw themselves as patriots. Yet to the Crown, and to many of the Sons' fellow colonists, the revolutionaries were terrorists who deserved death for their treason. In this gripping narrative, Les Standiford reveals how this group of intelligent, committed men, motivated by economics and political belief, began a careful campaign of interlocking events that would channel feelings of vague injustice into an armed rebellion of common cause, which would defeat an empire and give birth to a radical political experiment-a new nation known as the United States.
Les Standiford (Author), Robert Fass (Narrator)
Audiobook
Deal with the Dead: A John Deal Mystery
Les Standiford is the best-selling author of the famous John Deal suspense series, including Presidential Deal. The quickly paced plot, intriguing characters, and electric dialogue found in Deal With the Dead will please longtime fans and enthrall newcomers. John Deal is attempting to resurrect his late father's failed building firm when he makes an awesome discovery. Now he faces the strong-arm tactics of the same secret organization that ruined his father.
Les Standiford (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator)
Audiobook
Les Standiford's best-selling novels sizzle like the south Florida skyline. Filled with gritty characters and gripping suspense, each of his Deal books draws you from the sunlight into the deep criminal shadows of this tropical world. While John Deal is busy with his thriving construction business, he is shocked to learn that his closest friend, Barbara, is dead. Although the police tag it as suicide, Deal is suspicious. And when Barbara's sister, a beautiful film star, disappears, he is driven to find the relationship between the two cases. The link is one that will put Deal in the midst of Chinese gangsters and piles of tainted cash. Les Standiford weaves together motives and action so skillfully, he has been called "the unassailable new kingpin of the South Florida crime novel ." The absorbing pace of Deal to Die For is sharpened by the crisp narrative talents of Ron McLarty.
Les Standiford (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator)
Audiobook
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