Michael Simon

Will detective Dan Reles arrest his own father...or will the mob find him first?Lieutenant Dan Reles has a new house, a wife, and a son, and a great career as head of Austin Homicide, but it's funny how your past catches up with you. When Dan's deadbeat father Ben Reles, a Mafia legbreaker who's spent the last twenty years on the run, shows up on Dan's doorstep with an escaped prostitute in tow, trouble is sure to follow.That trouble is Sam Zelig, a sociopathic godfather with limitless resources and boundless rage. In several diabolical strokes, he now holds Austin hostage, forcing Dan to choose between the town he's sworn to protect, his new family, and his father. In the process he faces trial by fire, bullet, bridge embankment, and one very angry woodchipper. Sure to satisfy Simon's core devotees as well as fans of Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy, Last Jew Standing is fastpaced and suspenseful from start to finish.

"In April 1863--after the Dakota War of 1862, after the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men in the largest mass execution in U.S. history--some 270 Dakota men were moved from Mankato, Minnesota, to a prison at Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa. Separated from their wives, children, and elder relatives, with inadequate shelter, they lived there for three long, wretched years. More than 120 men died. Desperate to connect with their families, many of these prisoners of war learned to write. Their letters, mostly addressed to the missionaries Stephen R. Riggs and Thomas S. Williamson, asked for information, for assistance, and for help sending and receiving news of their loved ones. Dakota elders Clifford Canku and Michael Simon, fluent Dakota speakers, provide both the transcription and the first published translation of fifty of these letters, culled from Riggs's papers at the Minnesota Historical Society. They are a precious resource for Dakota people learning about the travails their ancestors faced, important primary source documents for historians, and a vital tool for Dakota language learners and linguists"--Amazon.com, viewed April 30, 2013.

Little Faith adored John Robinson, her beloved adopted father. He had taken care of her since her mother had died. But when Providence allowed hardship to enter Faiths life, she responded by running away away from the comfort, love, and protection of her devoted adopted father, and away from the dreaded Mrs. Gubbins who had no patience for children. As she ran, she poured out her troubles to her Great Friend, Jesus. But now He did not seem to answer her pleas for help! Resting one evening in a church, she awoke to hear the minister say, "Little Faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" And so she begins to learn the meaning of her own name, waiting patiently for Him to answer in His time, according to His way. Every one of us struggles to comprehend the depth of the meaning of faith. This compelling short story by the author of Christie's Old Organ will show you and your children how true faith in the Lord Jesus carries the believer through the most grievous of hardships. Little Faith had such an impact on our family (and my own little girl named Faith), that we chose to publish this gem and to go the extra mile by reproducing it consistent with the beauty and quality of the nineteenth century original. In so doing, we hope to provide you with an important heirloom book that can be enjoyed by every member of your family and passed on for generations. - Publisher.