Bill Tasker Series

Walking Money

After a career with the DEA, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Jim Born has seen just about everything. He’s used his experience to craft novels that are funny, gritty and revolve around crime. Chosen by Florida Monthly Magazine as one of the 21 most intriguing Floridians and hailed as “the new sheriff in town,” by the Chicago Sun-Times, Born continues to make us look at police, crime and criminals in a new light.

State cop Bill Tasker has had problems in the past, but nothing compared to what's about to happen to him. A satchel with a million and a half in skimmed money is about to go walking. A phony community activist has decided to cash in, but a local FBI agent also has his eyes on the prize, a key witness gets murdered, and it's Tasker who ends up framed for the whole thing. Soon, other people become seduced by the cash as well, and as the bag passes from hand to hand and the body count mounts, Tasker realizes it's all up to him. If he doesn't retake his life right now . . . someone's going to do it for him.

Filled with a rich array of characters, a constantly twisting plot, and an authenticity so deep you can't help wondering how much of this is actually true, Walking Money is indeed proof that "Jim Born is the real thing."

Shock Wave

Florida lawman James Born follows one of the most highly praised crime debuts of the year with a literally explosive novel of hunter and hunted.

FDLE agent Bill Tasker, still smarting from a run-in with the FBI that almost got him killed, reluctantly teams up with the bureau again on a case involving a stolen Stinger missile. The op goes smoothly enough (though the feds take all the credit-what else is new?), but something about the whole setup just doesn't feel right to him. Tasker pokes around a bit-and stirs up more trouble than a nest of rattlesnakes: with his boss, with the FBI, with the ATF, and, worst of all, with a certain gentleman who loves to see things blow up . . . bigger and bigger things,as it turns out. The bomber hasn't killed anybody yet, but if this FDLE agent keeps interfering-well, there's always a first time, isn't there?

Escape Clause

FDLE agent Bill Tasker's boss is worried about the stress Tasker's been under, but he has a solution. The governor wants somebody from the outside to take a look into an inmate homicide at Manatee Correctional Prison, and the boss figures he can do the state a favor and give Tasker a break at the same time. Some break. Turns out there's a whole lot going on at Manatee. The prison captain likes to enforce discipline by fairly unorthodox methods. The psych ward has been known to misplace a mental patient occasionally. A trustee named Luther has far more on his mind than working in the prison library-though the rods holding up the shelves do make very nice shivs. The prison inspector is carrying a number of very uninspector-like secrets. And something very bad is about to happen to Tasker's next-door neighbor.

Alex Duarte Series

Field of Fire

Since returning from Bosnia, ATF agent Alex "Rocket" Duarte has been slowly reacclimating to life in South Florida. But when a gunrunner's car explodes, Duarte's life kicks into high gear in a high-profile hunt for what appears to be a serial bomber. Teamed up with a lawyer from the Department of Justice who herself is looking into possibly related bombings in Virginia and Seattle, Duarte crisscrosses the country, following the bomber and hoping to anticipate his next move, but as he peels away the layers of deception, the lines between friends and enemies begin to blur-and the results are explosive.

Burn Zone

It was supposed to be a low-level bust for ATF agent Alex Duarte, with the hope that he could work it up the ladder to someone important. He just didn't know how important. In New Orleans to check out a mysterious Panamanian named Ortiz who likes to trade guns illegally and import marijuana by the truckload, Duarte suddenly finds himself in the middle of something bigger than he has ever known. Because guns and drugs are bad enough-but there are other things that are much, much worse.

A shadowy colonel who is not what he seems . . . a white supremacist intent on becoming "the man who changed America". . . an attractive FBI agent with a lot of pull and a lot of secrets . . . Alex Duarte knows he's in deep with these characters. He just hopes he's not over his head.