When investigators are called to a meticulously staged crime scene on a canal bank in rural Central Californiathe latest in a series of murders that have killed three young women in one monththey realize a dangerous serial killer is on the loose, someone who is highly adept at hiding his tracks. And before the murderer can be brought to justice, young assistant DA Matt Jamison will lose his illusions about what justice means. As a fourth victim is abducted and investigators race against time, Jamison must cope with a sophisticated and elusive killer, a politically-minded sheriff eager to claim credit and spread blame, mounting pressure to win a high-profile trial, and his own conscience as part of the machinery of justice. A gripping, fast-paced, and coldly realistic thriller that tracks a killer from the crime scene to the courtroom and to a devastating aftermath, 'Fractured Justice' is a stunning debut crime novel from a former investigator, prosecutor, and judge who intimately knows the real world of attorneys, detectives, and men who kill.

Even hardened detectives were shaken by what they found at Frans Market in rural Fresno that night in 1980. Three young people lay in their own blood on the markets concrete floor, executed by a merciless killer, while a fourth victim barely held on to life. Then a grim investigation became even grimmer when the evidence led to the man who ordered the killings a convicted murderer already behind the walls of Folsom Prison. Hands Through Stone reveals the true story behind the Frans Market murders and their psychopathic mastermind, Clarence Ray Allen, the last man executed in California. Written by James Ardaiz, one of the first investigators on the scene and the prosecutor who built the case against Allen, Hands Through Stone gives the reader an insiders view of the tortuous, multi-year investigation that brought Allen to justice. Charismatic, controlling and terrifying a mystery even to those who knew him well Allen posed as a respectable businessman while running his private security company as a front for his burglary gang. Convicted in 1978 of the murder of accomplice Mary Sue Kitts, Allen orchestrated a bloody revenge while serving a life sentence, even ordering the murder of his own son. Ardaiz takes the reader step-by-step through every gritty, down-and-dirty piece of police work that painstakingly built the case against Allen, giving readers an unparalleled feel for what its really like to work a professional murder investigation. A true crime story that reads like an intricate mystery novel, Hands Through Stone dramatizes chilling scenes of murder, dogged investigation, and a gallery of quirky real-life characters no novelist could invent: cops, witnesses, victims, villains, and, above all, the enigmatic evil that was Clarence Ray Allen.

A sweeping novel of history, war and courage in the face of injustice, Tears of Honor tells the story of the heroic Japanese American soldiers who fought against Nazi tyranny in Europe, while their families were imprisoned in America. Sammy and Freddy are two all-American boys in the summer of 1941, dreaming of becoming professional baseball players and maybe asking a girl to the senior prom. But when war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans. Taken from their homes in rural central California and placed in internment camps, the boys decide that the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the real-life historical architects of the Japanese internment order) wage a bureaucratic war to persuade the government to give legal sanction to their plans to detain the Japanese population. Skillfully using legal argument, racist paranoia and media pressure, DeWitt and Bendetson persuade President Roosevelt to acquiesce to detentions. At Ford Ord in Monterey, California, Private Young Oak Kim (another real historical personage) wants to get out of the motor pool and into a fighting unit, but the prewar army has little use for Korean Americans. Now the war will take Kim to officer training and combat. In Europe, Sammy, Freddy, Yuki and Tug are placed under the command of newly commissioned Lieutenant Kim, who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war (which led to Kim becoming one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history). Sammy, Freddy and their comrades confront the prejudice of white soldiers and the horrors of combat, as they come to realize they are fighting not just for the United States, but for the honor of all Japanese Americans.

When investigators are called to a meticulously staged crime scene on a canal bank in rural Central Californiathe latest in a series of murders that have killed three young women in one monththey realize a dangerous serial killer is on the loose, someone who is highly adept at hiding his tracks. And before the murderer can be brought to justice, young assistant DA Matt Jamison will lose his illusions about what justice means. As a fourth victim is abducted and investigators race against time, Jamison must cope with a sophisticated and elusive killer, a politically-minded sheriff eager to claim credit and spread blame, mounting pressure to win a high-profile trial, and his own conscience as part of the machinery of justice. A gripping, fast-paced, and coldly realistic thriller that tracks a killer from the crime scene to the courtroom and to a devastating aftermath, 'Fractured Justice' is a stunning debut crime novel from a former investigator, prosecutor, and judge who intimately knows the real world of attorneys, detectives, and men who kill.

Even hardened detectives were shaken by what they found at Frans Market in rural Fresno that night in 1980. Three young people lay in their own blood on the markets concrete floor, executed by a merciless killer, while a fourth victim barely held on to life. Then a grim investigation became even grimmer when the evidence led to the man who ordered the killings a convicted murderer already behind the walls of Folsom Prison. Hands Through Stone reveals the true story behind the Frans Market murders and their psychopathic mastermind, Clarence Ray Allen, the last man executed in California. Written by James Ardaiz, one of the first investigators on the scene and the prosecutor who built the case against Allen, Hands Through Stone gives the reader an insiders view of the tortuous, multi-year investigation that brought Allen to justice. Charismatic, controlling and terrifying a mystery even to those who knew him well Allen posed as a respectable businessman while running his private security company as a front for his burglary gang. Convicted in 1978 of the murder of accomplice Mary Sue Kitts, Allen orchestrated a bloody revenge while serving a life sentence, even ordering the murder of his own son. Ardaiz takes the reader step-by-step through every gritty, down-and-dirty piece of police work that painstakingly built the case against Allen, giving readers an unparalleled feel for what its really like to work a professional murder investigation. A true crime story that reads like an intricate mystery novel, Hands Through Stone dramatizes chilling scenes of murder, dogged investigation, and a gallery of quirky real-life characters no novelist could invent: cops, witnesses, victims, villains, and, above all, the enigmatic evil that was Clarence Ray Allen.

A sweeping novel of history, war and courage in the face of injustice, Tears of Honor tells the story of the heroic Japanese American soldiers who fought against Nazi tyranny in Europe, while their families were imprisoned in America. Sammy and Freddy are two all-American boys in the summer of 1941, dreaming of becoming professional baseball players and maybe asking a girl to the senior prom. But when war comes, Sammy Miyaki, Freddy Shiraga and their families are seen as enemy aliens, not Americans. Taken from their homes in rural central California and placed in internment camps, the boys decide that the only way to prove their loyalty to America is to join the Army. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, General John DeWitt and Major Karl Bendetsen (the real-life historical architects of the Japanese internment order) wage a bureaucratic war to persuade the government to give legal sanction to their plans to detain the Japanese population. Skillfully using legal argument, racist paranoia and media pressure, DeWitt and Bendetson persuade President Roosevelt to acquiesce to detentions. At Ford Ord in Monterey, California, Private Young Oak Kim (another real historical personage) wants to get out of the motor pool and into a fighting unit, but the prewar army has little use for Korean Americans. Now the war will take Kim to officer training and combat. In Europe, Sammy, Freddy, Yuki and Tug are placed under the command of newly commissioned Lieutenant Kim, who leads them through some of the fiercest fighting of the war (which led to Kim becoming one of the most highly decorated American soldiers in history). Sammy, Freddy and their comrades confront the prejudice of white soldiers and the horrors of combat, as they come to realize they are fighting not just for the United States, but for the honor of all Japanese Americans.