Most Popular Books by Malcolm McConnell

From the author of Argo comes an unforgettable behind-the-scenes story of espionage in action. In the first ever memoir by a top-level operative to be authorized by the CIA, Antonio J. Mendez reveals the cunning tricks and insights that helped save hundreds from deadly situations. Adept at creating new identities for anyone, anywhere, Mendez was involved in operations all over the world, from “Wild West” adventures in East Asia to Cold War intrigue in Moscow. In 1980, he orchestrated the escape of six Americans from a hostage situation in revolutionary Tehran, Iran. This extraordinary operation inspired the movie Argo, directed by and starring Ben Affleck.

The powerful unvarnished memoir of General Hugh Shelton, war hero, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during 9/11, and one of the leading military figures of our time. Whether serving under a Democratic president or a Republican president, General Shelton was never afraid to speak out and tell it like it is. Shelton chronicles his incredible journey from a small farming community in North Carolina to the highest level of American military and political power at the Pentagon and White House. As one of the nation''s elite Special Forces soldiers, Shelton served twice in Vietnam, commanding a Green Beret unit and then an airborne infantry company. He was awarded a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart for a wound suffered when a booby trap drove a poisoned stake through his leg. Shelton rose up the ranks and was assistant division commander of the 101st Airborne Division as they invaded Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, then led the 20,000 American troops tasked with restoring Haiti''s deposed President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power. Promoted to 4-star General, he became Commander in Chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (including Delta Force, Navy SEALS and other top secret Special Mission Units). But it was while serving as Chairman during both the Clinton and Bush administrations that he faced his biggest challenges, including his role as chief architect of the U.S. military response to 9/11. General Shelton speaks frankly of how decisions were made behind the scenes in the inner sanctum of the E-Ring and Oval Office, and reveals key military operations and meetings that have not yet been revealed, including: * High-ranking Cabinet member proposes intentionally allowing an American pilot to be killed by the Iraqis to have an excuse to retaliate and go to war. * Details of a contentious Camp David meeting among President George W. Bush and his National Security Council immediately after 9/11, where internal battle lines were drawn---and Shelton (along with Colin Powell) convinced President Bush to do the right thing. * How Rumsfeld persuaded General Tommy Franks to bypass the Joint Chiefs, leading to a badly flawed Iraq war plan that failed to anticipate the devastating after-effects of the insurgency and civil war. * Attempts to kill Usama bin Laden that were shot down by our State Department. * CIA botched high-profile terrorist snatches, leaving Shelton''s Special Operations teams to clean up their mess. * How Shelton "persuaded" Haiti''s dictator to flee the country. * And much more. Yet it''s Shelton''s amazing personal story that puts his military career in perspective. It began with a fall from a ladder in his backyard, resulting in total paralysis from the neck down---and a risky experimental procedure, so dangerous that if it didn''t cure him, chances are it would kill him. Revealing, compelling, and controversial, Without Hesitation is the story of a man whose integrity and ethics were always above reproach, and who dedicated his life to serving his country.

Providing definitive answers to the POW/MIA mystery, an authoritative investigation into an enduring controversy reveals shocking information from secret Vietnamese archives about MIA and POW cases, including photographs and material obtained from Operation Swamp Ranger. “Enthralling and fast-paced, yet encyclopedic in scope,” says Major General John K. Singlaub, U.S. Army.

How close did the Japanese come to not surrendering to Allied forces on August 15, 1945? The Last Mission explores this question through two previously neglected strands of late—World War II history, whose very interconnections could have caused a harrowing shift in the course of the postwar world. On the final night of the war, as Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, a band of Japanese rebels, commanded by War Minister Anami''s elite staff, burst into the palace. They had plotted a massive coup that aimed to destroy the recordings of the Imperial Rescript of surrender and issue false orders forged with the Emperor’s seal commanding the widely dispersed Japanese military to continue the war. If this rebellion had succeeded, the military would have proceeded with large-scale kamikaze attacks on Allied forces, costing huge casualties and just possibly provoking the Americans to drop a third atomic bomb on Japan over Tokyo–and continue to drop more bombs as Japanese resistance stiffened.

Malcolm McConnell is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller American Soldier with Tommy Franks and My Year in Iraq with L. Paul Bremer III. He is the author or co-author of twenty-three books, many of them on military subjects. He most recently co-wrote Born to Fly with navy pilot Shane Osborn. He lives near Washington D.C.

America''s first three-star female general presents a personal account of her thirty-two-year career in the U.S. Army, describing her experiences in a male-dominated profession, from her 1969 enlistment as a young officer in the Women''s Army Corps, through her Pentagon service, to her retirement in 2000. Written with New York Times Bestselling author, Malcolm McConnell.

In this autobiography, the renowned marine geologist and adventurer who discovered the remains of the Titanicrecounts his achievements, from plumbing undersea canyons to rescuing the lost ships of Guadalcanal. Co-author Malcolm McConnell is the author or co-author of many books, including the New York Times number 1 bestseller American Soldier with Gen. Tommy Franks. A former Foreign Service officer, McConnell lives in Queenstown, Maryland, with his wife, Carol.

Even centuries later, the final decades of the twentieth century are still regarded as one of the darkest and most perilous chapters in the history of humanity Now, as an ancient and forbidden technology tempts mankind once more, Captain James T. Kirk of the "Starship Enterprise(TM)" must probe deep into the secrets of the past, to discover the true origins of the dreaded Eugenics Wars -- and of perhaps the greatest foe he has ever faced. 1974 A.D. An international consortium of the world''s top scientists have conspired to create the Chrysalis Project, a top-secret experiment in human genetic engineering. The project''s goal is the creation of a new super-race to take command of the entire planet. Gary Seven, an undercover operative for an advanced alien species, is alarmed by the project''s objectives; he knows too well the apocalyptic consequences of genetic manipulation. But he may already be too late. One generation of super-humans has already been conceived. Seven watches as the children of Chrysalis-in particular, a brilliant youth named Khan Noonien Singh -- grow to adulthood. Can Khan''s dark destiny be averted -- or is Earth doomed to fight Singh a global battle for supremacy? "The Eugenics Wars: Volume One" is a fast-paced thriller that explores the rise of the conqueror known as Khan.

The former head of the coalition government in Iraq describes the challenges they faced after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, including limited resources, rampant violence, and groups of exiles who vied for control over the nation.

At last, a definitive, practical handbook on the craft of fiction—by an author who has been both a highly successful writing teacher and a novelist. Malcolm McConnell goes directly to the actual craft of drafting and redrafting, using student drafts as models and teaching aids. The building blocks of fiction are demonstrated in action: character, setting, point of view, dialogue, as well as the nuts-andbolts problems of notetaking, outlining, and building effective metaphor and narrative pace.

To America, he was a hero. To his troops, he was a soldier. Now hear his story. Each new era in American history has given rise to a military leader who defines the nation’s proudest traditions—of leadership and honor, of vision and commitment and courage in the face of any challenge. From Washington and U.S. Grant to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Norman Schwarzkopf, these men have captured the nation’s imagination, and entered the small pantheon of

Two decades of unprecedented change and social disruption have wracked the lives of young people around the world. This book illuminates these troubled decades by weaving a tapestry of compelling stories that embody, first-hand, the confusing cultural upheavals of the past twenty years. McConnell probes his subjects, interacts with them, and reveals why they-young terrorists, fanatics, murderers, teen-age hookers, religious zealots, extremists of the left and the rightu00ad stepped over the line of normal behavior. These accounts, all true and previously untold, bring a confused era back to vivid life and give it new meaning. From its openu00ad ing pages to its inspiring conclusion this remarkably moving book stirs the reader to a new understanding of the turbulence in the minds and hearts of a profoundly troubled generation.

An infirm, lifetime alcoholic suddenly becomes sober and strong. A patient undergoing open-heart surgery amazes the doctors with a speedy convalescence. A cancer patient given only a few months to live defies the predictions. What accounts for such remarkable recoveries? Is it miracle or medicine? In this extraordinary book, Dr. Harold G. Koenig presents groundbreaking scientific evidence that provides answers to these puzzling medical mysteries. You will read about the pioneering study that found nonreligious patients with heart disease to be three times more likely to die following surgery than their religious counterparts. You''ll learn why saying prayers regularly can be as effective as taking medicine, and why prayer and medicine together are such a potent combination. Here you will meet the unforgettable patients who taught the doctors so much as they triumph over life-threatening disease, heartbreaking marital problems, dangerous addiction, and more. With simple, practical methods for harnessing the power of faith, this potentially lifesaving book provides an astonishing and immensely effective strategy for healing.

Now in mass market, the memoir of an American marine lieutenant accused and ultimately exonerated of murdering two Iraqi insurgents.

Edgar Award Finalist: The “exciting” true story of the abduction of biathlete Kari Swenson and the five-month manhunt to bring her tormentors to justice (The New York Times Book Review). Former rodeo cowboy Johnny France had been sheriff of Madison County, Montana, for three years when Kari Swenson, a Bozeman resident training for the World Biathlon Championship, went missing near Big Sky Resort in July 1984. Her friends feared that Kari had been attacked by a grizzly bear, but the truth was far scarier: She’d been kidnapped at gunpoint by father-and-son survivalists Don and Dan Nichols. The pair had been living in the wilderness off and on for years and hoped to make Kari a “mountain woman” and Dan’s bride. But the plan went horribly wrong from the start, and after a deadly firefight with rescuers, the kidnappers vanished into the rugged terrain of the Spanish Peaks. As Montana’s summer froze into brutal winter blizzards, SWAT teams, forest rangers, and antiterrorist units searched the backcountry but sighted the mountain men only once. Then came the call about a strange campfire on a slope above the Madison River. Sheriff France decided to go into the forest to face the fugitives—alone. The resulting showdown made him “perhaps the most famous Western sheriff since Wyatt Earp . . . a modern legend” (Chicago Tribune). Incident at Big Sky is an “amazing . . . exciting retelling of a modern crime” that made headlines around the world (The New York Times Book Review). In a voice as distinctive and compelling as the Montana landscape, France takes readers on a high-stakes adventure so bizarre and unforgettable it could only be true.

The account of a couple’s voyage in a small sailboat from New York to Greece is unique. They best describe it themselves: “We are both writers, and we were aware that...the passage would affect us deeply and possibly change us in unforeseen ways, both as individuals and as a couple. “We agreed to meld the events, insights, and emotions recorded in our separate logs into one narrative. We realized that it is the internal, private voyage that one remembers long after the memories of dark wind and sunny wave crests have faded.”

Here is a dramatic, first-person account of how the United States won the war in Iraq, only to see the peace lost by an unengaged administration, with Iraqis terrorized and the new "caliph" of ISIS promising , "I’ll see you in New York." Military contractor Carter Andress was the ultimate boots-on-the-ground "civilian" in Iraq. While reporters, aid workers, diplomats, and even U.S. soldiers were often cut off from the "ground truth" in Iraq by the blast walls protecting the Green Zone and our bases, Andress was in the thick of things: driving through insurgent-infested territory, negotiating with hostile tribes, and witnessing the transformation of Iraq from chaos and violence to a stable multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian democracy that needed only minimal American support to defend itself - support, however, that thanks to the Obama administration was not forthcoming. A page-turner of a story, but also an incredibly important account of what actually happened in the Iraq War and afterwards, Victory Undone is a book every American needs to read.

Hey Clinton! When you take on the CIA and the KGB you have to be pretty smart, or pretty stupid - or both. Didn''t you know what you were in for when you fished that damned sub tracking device out of Moroccan waters? Or when you tried to sell it to the highest bidder? Suddenly you became an expendable amateur in a deadly professional game of death. You were spy, counterspy, and spy bait all in one - and a fool for thinking you could play both ends against the middle without getting caught in the act.

Jason Project year 4.

Recreates the story of America''s race to the moon with the Soviets in 1969 with the launching of Project Apollo.

The Soviet pilot recounts his audacious defection in a hijacked MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jet and reveals the secrets behind the 1983 shooting of Korean Airlines flight 007, Soviet military espionage, American POWs in the Soviet Union, and other issues. Reprint.