In the summer of 1987 in Romania, Coronel Nicolae Mollica has just murdered the communist party treasurer. He has no fear of being caught until he notices tourist Maria O Sullivan taking pictures that may include him. Photographs are retrieved but not all of them. The vacationing O Sullivan family has now become embroiled in a matter of national security.

Now, the O Sullivans and twenty-four other Americans on a tour bus are in great danger. They find themselves accused of murder and trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Tour guide Peter Korzo has run up against Mollica before; he knows what the man is capable of, but he is willing to risk his life to escape with his new American friends.

Mollica will stop at nothing, however, in order to remain in power. His indiscretion cannot be revealed, so with the help of the Romanian Secret Police and a nation of informants, he hunts the O Sullivan family. He must have the photo but now he also wants Maria. He lies when he offers her safety and freedom for her family in exchange for a night of sex, Will she accept his offer?

In many ways, Tariq Karim is an average teenager. Fourteen can a confusing age for a boy on the verge of becoming a man, as changes morph his body and mind into something even he doesn't recognize. Tariq's experience, however, is very different from his friends. Along with the many physical changes he's going through, he's also discovering that he has some strange, new abilities-and he's got good reason to keep these abilities a secret.

He and his widowed mother are on the run, hiding from enemies he can't really understand or predict. Tariq and his mom have finally found what they hope is a safe haven in a small, quiet town. His mother has even found romance and a great new teaching job. Things seem to be settling down, but then Tariq starts getting premonitions and warnings that frighten him.

One day, one such premonition impels him to stop his friend's father from crossing the train tracks at precisely the right moment-saving his life. Tariq's secret is out, and his life will never be the same. So begins his fascinating and frightening journey to purpose. And suddenly, the quiet and anonymous life he and his mother were building come crashing to an end as their enemies find them again.

For a young man who wants to find his place in the world, are these gifts a blessing or a curse?

Thirty-eight-year-old Angus Branigan, an abusive husband and father, a compulsive gambler, and a lazy, self-centered brute of a man, reaches his darkest hour when he shoots a policeman during a botched robbery and escapes with three bullets in his back. Some blocks away from the crime scene, he hides in Epiphany Church, an old church in lower Manhattan. Bleeding, alone, and dying, he argues his right to live with the statue of a shepherd with a baby lamb. In the midst of a violent thunderstorm, Branigan swaps his soul with the statue and finds himself outside the church uninjured, wearing an expensive suit with money in its pocket. He is stunned by this happenstance; he has an opportunity to see the life he could have lived had he made different choices. The next morning, the parish priest finds the statue of the shepherd bleeding from three holes in its back. A novel of abuse and love, "The Lost Lamb" explores the reality of miracles, forgiveness, and the power of second chances.

In the summer of 1987 in Romania, Coronel Nicolae Mollica has just murdered the communist party treasurer. He has no fear of being caught until he notices tourist Maria O Sullivan taking pictures that may include him. Photographs are retrieved but not all of them. The vacationing O Sullivan family has now become embroiled in a matter of national security.

Now, the O Sullivans and twenty-four other Americans on a tour bus are in great danger. They find themselves accused of murder and trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Tour guide Peter Korzo has run up against Mollica before; he knows what the man is capable of, but he is willing to risk his life to escape with his new American friends.

Mollica will stop at nothing, however, in order to remain in power. His indiscretion cannot be revealed, so with the help of the Romanian Secret Police and a nation of informants, he hunts the O Sullivan family. He must have the photo but now he also wants Maria. He lies when he offers her safety and freedom for her family in exchange for a night of sex, Will she accept his offer?

In many ways, Tariq Karim is an average teenager. Fourteen can a confusing age for a boy on the verge of becoming a man, as changes morph his body and mind into something even he doesn't recognize. Tariq's experience, however, is very different from his friends. Along with the many physical changes he's going through, he's also discovering that he has some strange, new abilities-and he's got good reason to keep these abilities a secret.

He and his widowed mother are on the run, hiding from enemies he can't really understand or predict. Tariq and his mom have finally found what they hope is a safe haven in a small, quiet town. His mother has even found romance and a great new teaching job. Things seem to be settling down, but then Tariq starts getting premonitions and warnings that frighten him.

One day, one such premonition impels him to stop his friend's father from crossing the train tracks at precisely the right moment-saving his life. Tariq's secret is out, and his life will never be the same. So begins his fascinating and frightening journey to purpose. And suddenly, the quiet and anonymous life he and his mother were building come crashing to an end as their enemies find them again.

For a young man who wants to find his place in the world, are these gifts a blessing or a curse?

Thirty-eight-year-old Angus Branigan, an abusive husband and father, a compulsive gambler, and a lazy, self-centered brute of a man, reaches his darkest hour when he shoots a policeman during a botched robbery and escapes with three bullets in his back. Some blocks away from the crime scene, he hides in Epiphany Church, an old church in lower Manhattan. Bleeding, alone, and dying, he argues his right to live with the statue of a shepherd with a baby lamb. In the midst of a violent thunderstorm, Branigan swaps his soul with the statue and finds himself outside the church uninjured, wearing an expensive suit with money in its pocket. He is stunned by this happenstance; he has an opportunity to see the life he could have lived had he made different choices. The next morning, the parish priest finds the statue of the shepherd bleeding from three holes in its back. A novel of abuse and love, "The Lost Lamb" explores the reality of miracles, forgiveness, and the power of second chances.