Panther Gap

"Chock-full of adventure, runs the gamut on the human experience....One hell of a good yarn.” ―David Baldacci The thrilling new novel from the Edgar Award–winning author of Bearskin, about two siblings on the verge of inheriting millions but who discover dark secrets in their family’s past. Named a most anticipated book by Crime Reads and BookPage Siblings Bowman and Summer were raised by their father and two uncles on a remote Colorado ranch. They react differently to his radical teachings and the confusions of adolescence. As young adults, they become estranged but are brought back together in their thirties by the prospect of an illegal and potentially dangerous inheritance from their grandfather. They must ultimately reconcile with each other and their past in order to defeat ruthless criminal forces trying to extort the inheritance. Set in the rugged American West and populated by drug cartels, shadowy domestic terrorists, and nefarious business interests, Panther Gap shows James McLaughlin’s talents on full display: gorgeous environmental writing, a white-knuckle thriller plot, and characters dealing with legacy, identity, and their own place in the world.

With their collection In Search of the Black Panther Party, Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow provided a broad analysis of the Black Panther Party and its legacy. In Liberated Territory, they turn their attention to local manifestations of the organization, far away from the party’s Oakland headquarters. This collection’s contributors, all historians, examine how specific party chapters and offshoots emerged, developed, and waned, as well as how the local branches related to their communities and to the national party. The histories and character of the party branches vary as widely as their locations. The Cape Verdeans of New Bedford, Massachusetts, were initially viewed as a particular challenge for the local Panthers but later became the mainstay of the Boston-area party. In the early 1970s, the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, chapter excelled at implementing the national Black Panther Party’s strategic shift from revolutionary confrontation to mainstream electoral politics. In Detroit, the Panthers were defined by a complex relationship between their above-ground activities and an underground wing dedicated to armed struggle. While the Milwaukee chapter was born out of a rising tide of black militancy, it ultimately proved more committed to promoting literacy and health care and redressing hunger than to violence. The Alabama Black Liberation Front did not have the official imprimatur of the national party, but it drew heavily on the Panthers’ ideas and organizing strategies, and its activism demonstrates the broad resonance of many of the concerns articulated by the national party: the need for jobs, for decent food and housing, for black self-determination, and for sustained opposition to police brutality against black people. Liberated Territory reveals how the Black Panther Party’s ideologies, goals, and strategies were taken up and adapted throughout the United States. Contributors: Devin Fergus, Jama Lazerow, Ahmad A. Rahman, Robert W. Widell Jr., Yohuru Williams

When Luke Taylor's father leaves home to fight for the South in the Civil War, it's up to Luke to be the man of his family. Luke struggles to keep his family safe as Union soldiers march through the South burning crops, destroying buildings, and killing livestock. When a band of renegades dressed as Union soldiers attacks his home, killing his brother and beating him and his mother, Luke must leave the farm to find his father. Luke and his father return to see their farm facing a new threat-carpetbaggers from the North who threaten to seize their land. When Luke and his father resist, Luke has to kill a carpetbagger to defend his father. The leader of the carpetbaggers reports to the Union army that Luke killed his man in cold blood. Luke must either stay with his family and risk being hanged or leave his home forever in search of a better life in the West. In Luke Taylor-Westward Bound, Luke races against time, Union soldiers, and bounty hunters on his way to join a wagon train in Independence, Missouri. With only a packhorse, a few days' supply of food, and a stowaway dog, Luke heads west on a tense, adventure-filled journey of survival. Luke Taylor-Westward Bound takes readers along on a thrilling quest for freedom, peace, and ultimately, revenge.