You can teach the craft, but you must first form the heart. Many preachers want to preach better, but they don't always know how to go about improving, and most books on preaching focus on the mechanics of the craft. But preaching involves more than the steps from a text to a sermon, because every time a preacher stands up to preach, their character shines through -- for better or for worse. In The Heart of the Preacher, Rick Reed focuses on the personal...

Take One Deranged Killer. Add One Determined Cop. You Get One Deadly Obsession. . . From the moment he sees the young woman's body in her hotel bathtub, homicide detective Jack Murphy knows he's looking at a truly demented but brilliantly designed puzzle. She's been drained of blood. Missing her left hand-and the killer left a special message just for him. Hours later, he sees her severed hand arranged on a second victim's body. The newspaper has...

DETECTIVE JACK MURPHY IS BACK-on the trail of a criminal mastermind who kills for profit and tortures for pleasure. In Jack Murphy's experience, the killers who blend in are the hardest to catch. But none are as elusive-or efficient-as Mr. Smith. A man of average height, weight and build, Mr. Smith is as ordinary as his name. Which makes it easy for him to get close to his targets. To kill without conscience. To use every weapon at his disposal...

Cop vs. Killer Detective Jack Murphy never met a cold case he couldn't crack. This one's been on ice for 37 years. The prime suspect in a decades-old unsolved murder is about to be named Evansville's next Chief of Police. The Mayor wants the top cop's name cleared-and that's why Murphy and his partner, Liddell Blanchard, are ordered to re-open the investigation. But when the victim's sister and mother are targeted for violence, troubling new questions...

In rural Indiana, the underground mines that once held coal and iron ore have become killing grounds. In two counties, five corpses have been discovered. Their deaths appear accidental, from drowning or suffocating in flooded and abandoned mines. But local authorities, including Chief Shaunda Lynch, have uncovered evidence suggesting they've all been murdered. Assigned to the case as Federal Agents, Detectives Jack Murphy and Liddell Blanchard take...

After Todd's mother dies from cancer, he moves back to his hometown in the foothills of the Appalachians from Chicago. It's 1997 and he's just been given a death sentence -- an HIV-positive diagnosis. Todd expects his remaining time on earth to be spent alone. But Cal, his handsome next-door neighbor, has other ideas. Cal is not the only surprise in Todd's new life. Todd begins having visions of an older woman, Essie, when he dims the lights. Is...

What if your first love was abducted and presumed dead-but then returned twenty years later? That's the dilemma Cole Weston faces. Now happily married to Tommy D'Amico, he's suddenly thrown into a surreal world when his first love, Rory Schneidmiller, unexpectedly reappears. Rory has no memory of those years. For him, it's as though only a day or two has passed. He still loves Cole with the passion unique to young first love. But Cole has so many...

Randy Kay has the perfect life with his beautiful wife and adorable son. But Randy's living a lie, untrue to himself and everyone who knows him. He's gay.Marriage and fatherhood, which he thought could change him, have failed. He doubts if anyone can love him for who he really is-especially himself.With his wife's blessing, he sets out to explore the gay world he's hidden from all his life.John Walsh, a paramedic with the Chicago Fire Department,...

Love comes along when you least expect it. That's what Duncan Taylor's sister, Scout, tells him. Scout has everything Duncan wants―a happy life with a wonderful husband. Now that Seattle has made gay marriage legal, Duncan knows he can have the same thing. But when he proposes to his boyfriend Tucker, he doesn't get the answer he hoped for. Tucker's refusal is another misstep in a long line of failed romances. Despairing, Duncan thinks of all the...

Milt Grabaur has left his life, home, and teaching career in Ohio to start anew. The Summer Winds trailer park in Palm Springs, butted up against the San Jacinto mountain range, seems the perfect place to forget the pain of nursing his beloved husband through Alzheimer's and seeing him off on his final passage. Billy Blue is a sexy California surfer type who once dreamed of being a singer but now works at Trader Joe's and lives in his own trailer...