Showing results by author "Ralph Griffith" in All Categories

The ancient Indian Sanskrit epic the Rāmāyana was composed some time between the first and fifth centuries BCE. As is the case with most ancient literature firmly rooted in the oral tradition, precise dating is problematic. Traditionally attributed to the sage Valmīki, and composed in rhyming couplets, it is one of the two great Indian epics (the other being the Mahābhārata); consequently it is known and revered not just throughout the Indian subcontinent but also in South-East Asian countries as well, indeed wherever Hindu culture became established.

The Rig Veda stands as one of the oldest surviving testaments to human thought—a luminous tapestry of hymns composed over three millennia ago in the fertile lands of ancient India. More than a sacred text, it is a record of revelation, ritual, and the riddle of existence, set to the rhythms of fire and sky.

In the damp embrace of a Portland night, a confession so vile spills from the shadows of the Grotto that Father Thomas flees the confessional. He asks another priest to take over, but fate, it seems, is a fickle deity. The wrong priest ends up with his throat slit, a victim of mistaken identity. Haunted by his own demons, Detective Johnny Walker takes the case. Battling the insatiable hunger of addiction, he delves into Portland's deceptive heart, unearthing a darkness festering beneath the surface. He’s called upon to navigate the labyrinth of a chilling child serial killer. As Walker ...

Bajo la opulencia bañada por el sol del consulado francés de Cairns, donde los chismes burbujean como el champán y los secretos nadan más profundo que el Gran Mar de Coral, se desarrolla un cuadro impactante. Madame Monet, la cautivadora Cónsul Honoraria, yace estrangulada en su dormitorio envuelto en seda, con un par de medias de Givenchy enroscadas alrededor de su elegante cuello. Canberra despacha a sus mejores galas: los inspectores, Harry Chin, un torbellino de sastrería de Savile Row y deducciones agudas, y a su lado se encuentra Ash Friday, un rastreador aborigen cuyos ojos ...

In this latest in the Too-Sweet Series, Too-Sweet after fleeing Belfast in Northern Ireland, along with Oki Daddy and Sista Idi Da-Da Amin head to Yokohama-Tokyo aboard a Yakuza fishing trawler. When they get there, Too-Sweet decides with Hiro Yamaguchi the Yakuza Oyabun, to open a nightclub featuring sumo matches with Sista Idi Da-Da dressed as a four-hundred-pound black sumo geisha with a platinum blonde geisha wig. The club becomes the hottest thing going and even Too-Sweet gets into the geisha swing of things. Both Too-Sweet and Sista Idi Da-Da wear custom made kimonos, and matching ...

Vodka Express takes readers on a visceral journey into the raw and fractured heart of Saint Petersburg—a city where faded imperial grandeur clashes violently with the brutal realities of its present, where the mean streets hold life cheaper than a bottle of vodka. Amidst this stark duality, Inspectors Dmitri Petrov and Manislov Illich forge an unlikely yet formidable partnership. Petrov, a master of subtle observation in a world quick to resort to force, must navigate this treacherous urban landscape like a deadly chess match. Alongside him stands his imposing partner, Manislov Illich, a ...

Este es el segundo de la serie de Clyde Thomas que tiene lugar en el sudeste asiático en el invierno y la primavera de 1967-1968. Clyde después de dejar Moonbeam en Haight Ashbury, vuelve a alistarse en el ejército y regresa a Vietnam como parte de la 716ª Policía Militar en Saigón. Regresa un mes antes de la Ofensiva Tet, con la esperanza de eliminar los demonios de su alma. Pero lentamente cae en un mundo más oscuro que el que había dejado. Una novela sorprendente y que invita a la reflexión y captura la política y la cruda realidad de la guerra, en un lugar que a nadie en ...

Es el año 1970 en el glamoroso corazón de París. La luz de la luna, la música y el asesinato se entremezclan en callejones llenos de humo, brillando en las copas de champán como un suave beso francés teñido de peligro. Clyde pensó que finalmente había escapado de su violento pasado y había construido un santuario con su amor, Rayo de Luna; su club de jazz era un faro alimentado por el ritmo de una nueva vida, no por los ecos de un antiguo derramamiento de sangre. París estaba destinado a ser el escape de Clyde, una oportunidad para construir una nueva vida. Pero los enemigos ...

The year is 1967. The Summer of Love explodes in San Francisco, a siren song for dreamers and idealistic runaways. Haunted by his Vietnam War experiences, disillusioned Clyde Thomas returns home to Tennessee, only to find that his sister has vanished. Naturally his parents want him to go and find her. Clyde reluctantly ventures into Haight Ashbury's intoxicating swirl of psychedelic music, antiwar protests, and newfound freedoms. Amidst the flower children and civil unrest, Clyde's path collides with the mesmerizing Moonbeam. Their undeniable romance offers a lifeline in a world Clyde no ...

Too-Sweet's adventures continue in this outrageous fourth installment of the Too-Sweet Saga. Our heroine, Too-Sweet, along with Speedy Gonzales, have fled London by train to Liverpool. They take a ferry to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, along with ten kilos of cocaine that Speedy had stashed in a storage locker back in Soho. Upon arriving they rent a nasty old, boarded up bar, built out on a wharf called The Black Irish. They get help from their IRA friends to get things going. Too-Sweet decides to build a big mud pit in the center of the bar and feature nude wrestling with four fierce ...

Haunted by the ghosts of San Francisco's Summer of Love and the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty he left behind, Clyde Thomas reenlists in the army and goes back to Vietnam as part of the 716th Military Police in Saigon. He arrives back a month before the Tet Offensive, hoping to clear the demons from his soul. But as the Tet Offensive explodes and Saigon crumbles into fiery chaos, he discovers a different kind of darkness—a war spiraling out of control, staining the soul of a nation. Drawn into Saigon's intoxicating underbelly, haunted by visions of Moonbeam and a new, forbidden love with...

In Darwin, Australia in the Northwest Territories, crocodiles aren't the only predators lurking about. Inspector Harry Chin, and his partner, Ash Friday, a fierce Aboriginal detective with dark brooding eyes, are sent from Canberra to investigate the murder of an Australian Federal Police Officer, Peter Riggs. Riggs had been working undercover on an international heroin ring that seems to be coming in through the Port of Darwin. The officer had been found in his car dead from an overdose of heroin--the very drug that he had been investigating. Everything seems to be pointing to a heroin ...

In the heart of Tasmania, where ancient forests whisper secrets and shadows dance with the wind, a chilling mystery unfolds, leaving the island community in a state of fear and uncertainty. When three young girls vanish without a trace from the seemingly tranquil town of Hobart, the lives of the island's inhabitants are forever changed. Enter Detective Harry Chin, a seasoned investigator with an unreadable face, and eyes that have witnessed the darkest depths of human nature. Harry has spent his life navigating the labyrinthine world of crime. His unwavering dedication and sharp intellect ...

En el corazón de Tasmania, donde los bosques ancestrales susurran secretos y las sombras bailan con el viento, se desarrolla un misterio escalofriante que deja a la comunidad isleña sumida en el miedo y la incertidumbre. Cuando tres jóvenes desaparecen sin dejar rastro de la aparentemente tranquila ciudad de Hobart, las vidas de los habitantes de la isla cambian para siempre. Entra en escena el detective Harry Chin, un investigador experimentado de rostro inescrutable y ojos que han presenciado las profundidades más oscuras de la naturaleza humana. Harry ha pasado su vida navegando por ...

Amidst the crumbling facades of a once vibrant city, the line between hunter and hunted blurs as private detective Johnny Walker plunges into a deadly game. Hired by a distraught Russian oligarch whose youngest daughter has vanished, Johnny soon discovers that the missing girl is merely a pawn in a much larger conspiracy. Her two stunning sisters, entwined in a web of family lies and secrets, become instrumental in unraveling a plot that stretches far beyond Portland's borders. Meanwhile, Detective Sandy Jenkins, Johnny's girlfriend, wages a relentless war against the city's escalating ...

It’s not easy growing up in lower Alabama tall and ugly with kids picking on you just because you prefer being a girl. Too-Sweet learned early on that the only way to keep kids from picking on her and chucking rocks and shit was to knock fire from their asses. If Too-Sweet hadn't liked being a girl so much, he could of boxed like his older brothers and maybe of turned pro. Tired of lower Alabama Too-Sweet decided to head out to San Francisco and make her fame and fortune. One day while whoring and taking a worthless check, Too-Sweet inadvertently robs a bank and a star is born. Divas is a...

En medio de las fachadas desmoronadas de una ciudad que alguna vez fue vibrante, la línea entre cazador y cazado se desdibuja cuando el detective privado Johnny Walker se sumerge en un juego mortal. Contratado por un angustiado oligarca ruso cuya hija menor ha desaparecido, Johnny pronto descubre que la niña desaparecida no es más que un peón en una conspiración mucho mayor. Sus dos impresionantes hermanas, entrelazadas en una red de mentiras y secretos familiares, desempeñan un papel decisivo a la hora de desentrañar una trama que se extiende mucho más allá de las fronteras de ...

The Real Bernie Madoff Ralph Griffith wrote a book that no one else could have! Sara Stratso November 9, 2020 There has been no shortage of books written about Bernie Madoff, but Ralph Griffith’s book stands out above all the rest because the author and Madoff were incarcerated together for seven years. Bernard Lawrence Madoff, a prominent Wall Street figure, was serving time in North Carolina’s Federal Medical Center in FCI Butner. Madoff, the former chairman of NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Automated Quotations Dealers) had been sentenced for 150 years for an elaborate ...

The Weasel--a name that perfectly captured the man. Skinny, with a complexion like sunbaked earth, this Hawaiian in his 40s was a fixture of Waikiki’s underbelly. He lived a transient life, his van doubling as his home when the waves weren't calling. Tourists were his bread and butter, easy marks for the pot he peddled on the sun-drenched beaches. Nights found him smoking ice, mesmerized by Bonnie Lim, a Chinese girl who danced on a stage bathed in colored lights. I’ve known the Weasel for over 20 years, and he has never changed since the day that I met him. A couple of days ago, the ...

Ralph Griffith's Monkey House is a memoir of his time served at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Butner in North Carolina. He spent the last seven years of his sentence with Bernie Madoff, Jonathan Pollard, Nicky Scarfo, Carmine Persico, and other well-known criminals. FMC Butner is a high-security prison that houses inmates with serious medical conditions and mental health issues. The prison also has a designation for high-profile criminals. Griffith describes the prison as a "giant Monkey House for the criminally insane." Monkey House is a fascinating and often humorous account of prison ...