{"title":"Ona Russell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"o-brien-s-desk-softcover-book-ona-russell-9780865345492","title":"O'Brien's Desk (Softcover)","description":"The year is 1923, and one of Ohio's most prominent judges, O'Brien O'Donnell, fathers his first and only child. Though a joyous occasion for the recently married, fifty-nine year old, the birth sets off a terrifying chain of events, beginning with blackmail and the judge's near-fatal breakdown. His only hope for recovery lies with his trusted friend and colleague, Sarah Kaufman. As Sarah begins to unravel the clues surrounding O'Brien's collapse, she is repeatedly confronted with the explosively paradoxical forces that defined life in the twenties: sexual promiscuity and self-righteous morality, Progressive reform and political corruption, racial tolerance and institutionalized bigotry. It was O'Brien's unique ability to strike a compromise between these forces that made him so popular.and, she realizes, so vulnerable to attack. And soon enough, Sarah, too, becomes a victim, a target of the blackmailer's hatred and revenge. But with the help of a story-hungry reporter to whom she becomes ambivalently attached, the unconventional Jewess sets out to free the judge and herself from their common enemy. How? The answer lurks within the hidden recesses of.O'Brien's desk. Based on true events, this suspenseful novel possesses a unique authenticity. With actual newspaper articles about the real O'Brien O'Donnell beginning each chapter, the story invites readers to solve the mystery along with the protagonist, piecing together a decades-traversing narrative, clip by clip. ONA RUSEL holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego. She has published scholarly articles and has taught in various colleges and universities in the San Diego area, currently at the UC San Diego Extension. Her second novel, The Natural Selection, was also published by Sunstone Press.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50370814247185,"sku":"CIN086534549XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50370815754513,"sku":"CIN086534549XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51078686343441,"sku":"NIN9780865345492","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52125060923665,"sku":"NLS9780865345492","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/086534549X.jpg?v=1751107952"},{"product_id":"natural-selection-book-ona-russell-9780865346284","title":"The Natural Selection","description":"In July of 1925, Sarah Kaufman is finally taking the holiday she deserves. Her court duties in the hands of a competent replacement, she looks forward to a month of relaxation with her cousin Lena, the newest and most progressive member of the English department at Tennessee's Edenville College. Knowing that the South would be even more humid than Toledo, Sarah packed only her lightest clothing. What she did not know, however, was that she also would need the investigative skills she had just barely acquired, the lover she had continuously resisted, and the emotional strength that she thought had been tested enough for one lifetime. Indeed, even before one of hottest summers on record has a chance to make her rethink her vacation plans, Sarah reluctantly agrees to help investigate the mysterious death of one of Lena's most esteemed and, as she discovers, enigmatic colleagues. With the dead professor's own cryptic, Darwinian message as a guide, Sarah travels the short distance to Dayton, Tennessee, where the internationally followed Scopes Monkey trial is underway. There, along with the disquieting Mitchell Dobrinkski reporting on the event for the Blade, she meets the famous journalist H. L. Mencken, who provides her with information that could help unravel the mystery. But the case, and the challenges to Sarah's physical and psychological well-being, have only just begun. What follows is a harrowing and complex path of dead-ends, bigotry and brutality, a journey that shatters her own preconceptions, takes her to the depths of her own desire, and ultimately leads her back to the college where Darwin's controversial theory of evolution startlingly resurfaces in a manner she never could have predicted. Set against the backdrop of what was deemed the Trial of the Century, this socially and politically relevant blend of fact and fiction includes actual courtroom excerpts and vividly portrays the Scopes trial's central figures: John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and especially H. L. Mencken. ONA RUSSELL holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego. She lectures nationally on the topic of literature and the law and is a regular contributor to Orange County Lawyer magazine. She also has been published in newspapers, scholarly journals and anthologies. She is the author of O'Brien's Desk, also from Sunstone Press, and is currently at work on her third Sarah Kaufman mystery, set against the backdrop of the 1920s Los Angeles oil boom. For more information visit: www.onarussell.com.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51009048674577,"sku":"NIN9780865346284","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52347031945489,"sku":"NLS9780865346284","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0865346283.jpg?v=1751297900"},{"product_id":"rule-of-capture-book-ona-russell-9781632930477","title":"Rule of Capture","description":"Los Angeles, 1928. Oil, oranges and site of the C. C. Julian Petroleum stock scandal, a Ponzi type scheme to rival any in American history and a foreshadowing of the decade's looming, economic crash. As one of the scheme's victims, Ohio probate officer Sarah Kaufman-still reeling from the K murders she helped solve in Tennessee-is in the city to attend the trial of the perpetrators, in particular of the friend who convinced her to invest. Sarah is eager for justice and committed to seeing the trial through. She's glad she's alone, that her lover Mitchell isn't there, that after court she'll have time to herself. But when a Mexican woman she barely knows winds up dead, Sarah's plans are thrown upside down. Suddenly she finds herself in a nightmarish trial by fire, one that takes her from the glamour of Hollywood to the Tijuana frontier, tests her deepest beliefs and leads her to discover not only a killer, but a part of Los Angeles built on a terrible secret. Includes Readers Guide. ONA RUSEL is a credentialed mediator and holds a PhD in literature from the University of California, San Diego, where she also taught for many years. She is the author of two previous Sarah Kaufman historical mysteries from Sunstone Press, O'Brien's Desk and The Natural Selection, the last of which was a finalist in the prestigious California Commonwealth Club Book Awards. She has been widely published in other venues and is an accomplished public speaker, lecturing particularly on the topic of literature and the law. For more information, please visit: www.onarussell.com","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51041461043473,"sku":"NIN9781632930477","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51278560428305,"sku":"CIN1632930471G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52136094302481,"sku":"NLS9781632930477","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1632930471.jpg?v=1750763088"},{"product_id":"son-of-nothingness-book-ona-russell-9781632932983","title":"Son of Nothingness","description":"\u003cp\u003eLos Angeles, 1949. Attorney Andrew Martin, aka Andr s Martinez, is doing what he does best: surviving. His career is stable, he has his pick of women, and his beloved parrot, Emerson, keeps him company. True, he's still lamenting his rejection from the military, still tormented by memories of his father, and then there's his leg, which continually feels like an imposter. But he's learned to live with all of that, too.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Until the arrival of Penny, that is, a member of the Salvation Army, a stranger with a secret. Andrew's meeting with the woman is brief, but what he learns from her upends him. Suddenly nothing makes sense. He desperately needs to get away, and it seems the gods are listening, for he's soon offered a job in Sacramento. And not just any job. He's been asked to help confirm a plot that the government is using ex-Nazis to spy on communists in the U.S. The timing seems perfect, and Andrew agrees. What he doesn't know is that this quest will lead him straight into the heart of that from which he is trying to escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Includes Reading Guide\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51602697912593,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51602698567953,"sku":"CIN1632932989VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52670494638353,"sku":"NLS9781632932983","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1632932989.jpg?v=1750720580"},{"product_id":"o-brien-s-desk-book-ona-russell-9780865344167","title":"O'Brien's Desk","description":"The year is 1923, and one of Ohio's most prominent judges, O'Brien O'Donnell, fathers his first and only child. Though a joyous occasion for the recently married, fifty-nine year old, the birth sets off a terrifying chain of events, beginning with blackmail and the judge's near-fatal breakdown. His only hope for recovery lies with his trusted friend and colleague, Sarah Kaufman. As Sarah begins to unravel the clues surrounding O'Brien's collapse, she is repeatedly confronted with the explosively paradoxical forces that defined life in the twenties: sexual promiscuity and self-righteous morality, Progressive reform and political corruption, racial tolerance and institutionalized bigotry. It was O'Brien's unique ability to strike a compromise between these forces that made him so popular.and, she realizes, so vulnerable to attack. And soon enough, Sarah, too, becomes a victim, a target of the blackmailer's hatred and revenge. But with the help of a story-hungry reporter to whom she becomes ambivalently attached, the unconventional Jewess sets out to free the judge and herself from their common enemy. How? The answer lurks within the hidden recesses of.O'Brien's desk. Based on true events, this suspenseful novel possesses a unique authenticity. With actual newspaper articles about the real O'Brien O'Donnell beginning each chapter, the story invites readers to solve the mystery along with the protagonist, piecing together a decades-traversing narrative, clip by clip. ONA RUSEL holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego. She has published scholarly articles and has taught in various colleges and universities in the San Diego area, currently at the UC San Diego Extension. Her second novel, The Natural Selection, was also published by Sunstone Press.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143358542097,"sku":"NLS9780865344167","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52952053874961,"sku":"NIN9780865344167","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780865344167.jpg?v=1757584112"},{"product_id":"son-of-nothingness-book-ona-russell-9781632933362","title":"Son of Nothingness","description":"\u003cp\u003eLos Angeles, 1949. Attorney Andrew Martin, aka Andr s Martinez, is doing what he does best: surviving. His career is stable, he has his pick of women, and his beloved parrot, Emerson, keeps him company. True, he's still lamenting his rejection from the military, still tormented by memories of his father, and then there's his leg, which continually feels like an imposter. But he's learned to live with all of that, too.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Until the arrival of Penny, that is, a member of the Salvation Army, a stranger with a secret. Andrew's meeting with the woman is brief, but what he learns from her upends him. Suddenly nothing makes sense. He desperately needs to get away, and it seems the gods are listening, for he's soon offered a job in Sacramento. And not just any job. He's been asked to help confirm a plot that the government is using ex-Nazis to spy on communists in the U.S. The timing seems perfect, and Andrew agrees. What he doesn't know is that this quest will lead him straight into the heart of that from which he is trying to escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Includes Reading Guide\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52486447890705,"sku":"NLS9781632933362","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53223650296081,"sku":"NIN9781632933362","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781632933362.jpg?v=1759859268"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-ona-russell.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}