* * * NEW EDITION * * *

For fans of Lee Child, Robert Crais, and Harlan Coben, here is white-knuckle suspense at its finest:

John Coburn, a Harvard-trained doctor still reeling from his father's sudden death a few days earlier, wanders into a bar in New York City's Greenwich Village a few minutes before midnight. He encounters an old friend from college, a man named Brian Ripley, whom he hasn't seen in nearly 20 years. Ripley is with a beautiful young woman and is clearly in a hurry to leave. Coburn could have never been prepared for Ripley's reaction to seeing him, and he is even less prepared for what happens next.

The following morning, the young woman with Ripley is found dead in Washington Square Park, the victim of a brutal murder. Coburn goes to the police and tells them of his encounter with Ripley the previous night. What the police tell him shakes him to his core - Brian Ripley has been dead for 15 years.

The story moves at breakneck speed as John Coburn searches for the truth behind the woman's murder and whether or not he really saw his friend, or merely a ghost, that night.

Feel free to contact the author at wcmbooks@gmail.com

"Intriguing, intense, and with such an insider's knowledge of  the war on terror that I'm surprised it's not classified.   Sinister, scary, and heart-stoppingly realistic - this is a gem of a thriller!" - Hank Phillippi Ryan, Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity-winning author

"No one puts the crosshairs on Washington, terrorism, and intrigue better than Keith Raffel. Do yourself a favor and read Drop By Drop!" - Andrew Gross, New York Times best-selling author and co-author of six #1 thrillers with James Patterson.

Stanford professor Sam Rockman suffers the crushing loss of his wife in a bombing at San Francisco Airport. Casting about to find meaning in the ruins of his life, he accepts an offer to come to Washington, D.C. to work for the Senate Intelligence Committee. What Sam wants out of his stint in D.C. is revenge for the death of his wife. What he gets is danger and betrayal. Secret documents are showing up on his doorstep. Russians are trying to poison him. A renegade CIA asset is strewing nuclear materials up and down Interstate 95. Sam finds allies among a savvy Kentucky senator, a billionaire investment banker, his wife's old rabbi, and the president's national security advisor. Too often, he finds himself thrown together with his counterpart on the other side of the aisle, the whip-smart, six-footer Cecilia Plant. Mourning still for his wife, Sam steels himself against Cecilia's appeal and remains suspicious of her motives.

When sixteen-year-old Hannah Sheraton is arrested for the murder of her stepgrandfather, the chief justice of the California Supreme court, her distraught mother turns to her old college roommate, Josie Baylor-Bates, for help. Josie, once a hot-shot criminal defense attorney, left the fast track behind for a small practice in Hermosa Beach, California. But Hannah Sheraton intrigues her and, when the girl is charged as an adult, Josie cannot turn her back. But the deeper she digs the more Josie realizes that politics, the law and family relationships create a combustible and dangerous situation. When the horrible truth is uncovered it can save Hannah Sheraton or destroy them both.

"This story was inspired by a case my husband handled. As a superior court judge he had to sentence a minor to life in prison. It made me wonder how I felt about minors arrested for violent crimes. Are they most vulnerable among us - capable or horrible violence, perceived as adults and yet emotionally still children?" Rebecca Forster (rebeccaforster.com)

"An enthralling read, with colorful, well-developed characters and the unique atmosphere of the California beach communities." Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

"Blending complex psychological character portraits with spot-on accurage courtroom drmaa, Forster's riveting legal thriller keeps the plot twists coming until the last, satisfying page." - Alafair Burke