Walter Walker – författare

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE SACRAMENTO BEEIn the tradition of Scott Turow, William Landay, and Nelson DeMille, Crime of Privilege is a stunning thriller about power, corruption, and the law in America—and the dangerous ways they come together.   A murder on Cape Cod. A rape in Palm Beach.   All they have in common is the presence of one of America’s most beloved and influential families. But nobody is asking questions. Not the police. Not the prosecutors. And certainly not George Becket, a young lawyer toiling away in the basement of the Cape & Islands district attorney’s office. George has always lived at the edge of power. He wasn’t born to privilege, but he understands how it works and has benefitted from it in ways he doesn’t like to admit. Now, an investigation brings him deep inside the world of the truly wealthy—and shows him what a perilous place it is.   Years have passed since a young woman was found brutally slain at an exclusive Cape Cod golf club, and no one has ever been charged. Cornered by the victim’s father, George can’t explain why certain leads were never explored—leads that point in the direction of a single family—and he agrees to look into it.   What begins as a search through the highly stratified layers of Cape Cod society, soon has George racing from Idaho to Hawaii, Costa Rica to France to New York City. But everywhere he goes he discovers people like himself: people with more secrets than answers, people haunted by a decision years past to trade silence for protection from life’s sharp edges. George finds his friends are not necessarily still friends and a spouse can be unfaithful in more ways than one. And despite threats at every turn, he is driven to reconstruct the victim’s last hours while searching not only for a killer but for his own redemption.Praise for Crime of Privilege  “Twisting, engrossing, irresistible.”—William Landay, author of Defending Jacob   “Stunning . . . an outstanding crime story.”—Library Journal (starred review)   “A terrifically entertaining race of a read . . . jam-packed with intelligence, insight, morality and heart. Top-notch and highly recommended!”—John Lescroart   “A gripping thriller . . . an unsettling, multilayered look at the insidious symbiosis between power and corruption.”—Maclean’s   “A legal thriller and a murder mystery cloaked in pure enjoyment . . . The author’s wit, dry and cutting, is razor-sharp.”—Bookreporter   “An engaging, very well-paced novel . . . exciting and unpredictable.”—Examiner.comFrom the Hardcover edition.

Manny Carlos serves as a bishop and the chairman of Victory in the Philippines, Dean of Spiritual Life for Every Nation Seminary, and has been a pastor for over thirty years. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Preaching and Leading from Asbury Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Mini, have four children, Jeremy, Daniel, Hannah, and Samuel. Victory Church, founded in 1984, has grown from a ragtag group of 160 Filipino college students to a church of over 100,000 members with 170-weekend services meeting in 17 different locations. Outside Metro Manila, Victory has planted churches in 92 cities that conduct 308 worship services in all the provinces of the Philippines. The two most prominent elements at the core of Victory Philippines have been an untiring commitment to prayer and making disciples. For 25 years, Manny Carlos has been one of the primary leaders in Victory's devotion to prayer. The central premise of Spirit-Empowered Prayer is that communion with God and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit is the key (the only key) to genuine spiritual transformation. Manny Carlos uses examples from the formative years of his spiritual life to make an inescapable point-that regimens and resolutions to pray more faithfully, more passionately, and more effectively are alone insufficient to sustain spiritual disciplines. His initial efforts in following various formulas of prayer echoed the early frustration of the apostle Paul in Romans 7-desiring to do one thing but lacking the power to accomplish it apart from the power of the Spirit. The author builds on this theme of spiritual empowerment with a description of one of his 16th-century heroes of the faith, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, whose rule of discipline was a retreat from the heavy burden of monastic rules to a full-time contemplation of the love of God and a radically simplified approach to spiritual disciplines. The book serves as a practical guide to becoming a disciple fully engaged in a Spirit-led prayer life, one without the formalized prescriptions that promise a greater communion with God but merely rely on an individual's willpower to overcome the power of fleshly desires and distractions. He devotes chapters to lessons he has learned about corporate prayer, cultivating the presence of God, and interceding for a great awakening. Manny Carlos gets even more practical in his discussions about how to create a culture of prayer and fasting within each local church. He also presents examples of how intercession on behalf of unbelievers became such an essential element of Victory Church's phenomenal growth. Put simply, if you're a person hungering and thirsting for a deeper and more meaningful prayer life-one that is far more empowered by communion with God and far less dependent upon formalism or rules of discipline to sustain your devotion, then this could be the book for you. You should be warned, however. Though the method is very simple, the cost is very high. It is nothing short of absolute surrender to the love of God and the desire to live continually in his presence.