Les Standiford

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay....

The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created—William Mulholland’s Los Angeles aqueduct—a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today. In 1907...

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven...

“Les Standiford takes us under the big top and behind the curtain in this richly researched and thoroughly engaging narrative that captures all of the entrepreneurial intrigue and spirit of the American circus.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Devil in the Grove Millions...

Two founding fathers of American industry. One desire to dominate business at any price. “Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience.”—USA Today “The narrative is as absorbing as that of any good novel—and as difficult to...

Johnny Deal is about to receive a presidential award for heroically rescuing 20 people from Miami waters. At the ceremony, however, as the president’s wife stands in for her husband, terrorists attack the stage....

“Popular history in its most vital and accessible form. Standiford has recovered the mentality of America’s first group of young radicals, the Sons of Liberty, and tells their story with flair and grace.” —Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Founding Brothers Les...

As Corrigan desperately tries to anticipate the next attack, the danger and tension mount with each passing hour. Filled with nonstop action, Black Mountain reaches new heights of suspense.

While John Deal is busy with his thriving construction business, he is shocked to learn that his closest friend, Barbara, is dead....

In 1931, a storm passes through the Florida straits, soon followed by a devastating explosion aboard a freighter, The Magdalena. Decades later, John Deal, the brooding real-estate developer and hero of eight previous Standiford mysteries, is traveling to Key West to talk over a prospective...

John Deal is attempting to resurrect his late father’s failed building firm when he makes an awesome discovery....

Many writers have highlighted South Florida's colorful characters, but John Deal is a remarkably normal man, put in extraordinary situations. Deal has spent much of his adult life trying to rebuild the Miami construction firm that his late father ruined. Cuba has just normalized relations with...

If you like audiobooks laced with dark, gritty suspense, you won’t be disappointed by this addition to the adventures of Johnny Deal....

As the Miami sun shines down on a brutal world of corruption and violence, Johnny Deal is salvaging what is left of his family’s contracting business....

Contractor-sleuth John Deal is the last of his kind—a builder who appreciates his craft. His friend Arch Dolan was the last of his kind, too, a Miami bookseller who sold books because he loved them. Now someone has killed him for it.

Looking at the island of Palm Beach today, its unmatched mansions, tony shops, and pristine beaches, one is hard pressed to visualize the dense tangle of Palmetto brush and mangroves that it was when visionary entrepreneur and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler first arrived there in 1893....