Ron Argo

FROM THE SHADOWS
Now comes vengeance for a childhood of unspeakable evil. At age 26, Janice Parrish cannot keep friends, she's frigid, she's rebellious, she drinks too much. An up-and-coming real estate agent, she's losing clients. She committes a crime and can either go to jail or to counseling. It's with the counselor that her nightmare begins. With all the "signs" of having been sexually abused so long ago, why couldn't Janice remember? San Diego crime reporter Ray Myers has more than a gut feeling that this story is a trap for danger, but it will be him alone who must find the truth--before more murders take place.

GONE MISSING
The deaths of six campesinos in the California desert was tragic enough before reporter Ray Myers discovers babies had crossed the border with them, babies now missing. The trail to find them hurls the reporter into the dangerous world of international human trafficking. The smuggling gang becomes crippled in chaos as mastermind Ricky Mendez devises a plan to get rid of everyone related to the smuggling operation, including now a pesky reporter who keeps sniffing in the wrong places. Myers, along with softhearted smuggler Maggie Frazier, find themselves on the run from Mendez’ henchmen while trying to rescue the babies from a ruthless Mexican trafficker who has hijacked the children. It’s a race against time that drives them deep into Baja’s Indian country and through the seamy back streets of Ensenada.

THE SUM OF HIS WORTH
Set at the dawn of the bloody civil rights movement in 1959 Alabama, THE SUM OF HIS WORTH tells of the daring friendship of highschooler Sonny Poe and dentist Joe Peach who for different reasons in different ways together challenge an age-old culture of hypocracy and prejudice. With tensions mounting among local teenage gangs and outside organizers determined to burn a path for racial equality through the state, Sonny has more to fret than girlfriends, grades and collecting money from his paper route customers. Sonny meets Doc Joe as he's rescuing a crippled bleeding dog just struck by a car. Doc Joe should be more concerned with socializing and stock market gains than the gathering storm of the civil rights movement. Yet the maverick dentist jeopardizes his practice and civic ranking for that very cause. Sonny admires Doc Joe despite the mysteries that shroud him. Sonny sees a man out to "clean a dirty house" when he signs on to the upstart federal Civil Service Commission job that he knows will open the floodgates on a corrupt town. Sonny's with Doc Joe a hundred percent--even when it comes to the deaths of people close by, and maybe his own, Doc Joe's or both.

YEAR OF THE MONKEY
A wartime drama of friendship and betrayal. Set in Vietnam during the decisive Tet offensive, the story takes us on a perilous Heart of Darkness journey through a war we only thought we knew. The CIA has ordered Specialist Russell Payne to befriend and rat on Corporal Daryll Willingham as part of a secret operation that, no matter how sinister, cannot boost or sustain an unpopular war. The two troops are forced into an unwitting odyssey through hell -- and into a court-martial for murder. Originally published by Simon and Schuster, 382 pp