Bureau Books
In 1917, three law school graduates are on their way to register for the draft in World War I. En route to the recruiting office, they meet classmate J. Edgar Hoover, who invites them all to join him in the U.S. Department of Justice, thereby serving their country without facing death in the trenches. Two—Aloysius Gantt and Declan O'Hara—agree, while the third, Gregory Jordan, goes on to join the U.S. Marines. On the home front, Gantt and O'Hara join in roundups of suspected draft dodgers and later, while Jordan is hospitalized for wounds suffered at Belleau Wood, they follow Hoover's lead into the Palmer raids, deporting alleged alien radicals to Russia.
Set in the years 1925 to early 1933, the novel tracks O'Hara, Gantt, Tolson, Sawyer and Jordan through new trials and tribulations. The rift between old friends Declan O'Hara and Aloysius Gantt deepens, with O'Hara pursuing criminal cases from the nation's capital to Oklahoma and New Jersey, while Gantt defends his ties to Edgar Hoover against recent newcomer Clyde Tolson. Third classmate Greg Jordan, now attorney and consiglieri for his brothers' crime family in New York City, finds himself in the midst of the Mafia's bloody Castellammarese War, forced to take violent personal action in defense of his loved ones. Isaac Sawyer, cashiered from the Bureau of Investigation for the color of his skin in 1924, makes his mark with the Treasury Department's Prohibition Unit, then transfers to the fledgling Federal Bureau of Narcotics when President Herbert Hoover shifts Prohibition enforcement to Justice, back under Edgar Hoover's thumb. The FBN's mission takes him from Manhattan's Chinatown to Texas in pursuit of dangerous drug smugglers. The sudden death of Thomas Walsh, named as the next U.S. Attorney General, rescues Edgar Hoover from enforced retirement, while prompting Declan O'Hara to wonder if there might be more behind that death than just an unexpected heart attack.
This third book in The Bureau series spans the era of "public enemies" and the global rush toward World War II. Declan O'Hara is transferred to Chicago, working under Melvin Purvis in pursuit of John Dillinger and associated bandits. Aloysius Gantt remains at FBI headquarters but ranges far afield to capture Machine Gun Kelly and the Barker-Karpis Gang. Edgar Hoover faces opposition in Congress and must prove his prowess as a G-man while expanding domestic surveillance on orders fro President FDR. Ike Sawyer remains with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and plays a role in prosecuting Lepke Buchalter. Greg Jordan and his brothers face peril as prosecution of "Murder Incorporated" threatens the Syndicate's moves in Cuba and Nevada. In the USSR, Leonid Babin continues his rise through secret police ranks, navigating the pitfalls of show trials, the Spanish Civil War, and Russia's expansion before Hitler betrays Stalin with "Operation Barbarossa." The FBI's Special Intelligence Service prepares to fight fascism in Latin America, with O'Hara assigned to foreign duty.
In Book IV of The Bureau—Honor and Glory—global war sets Earth ablaze. Declan O'Hara is assigned to the FBI's new Special Intelligence Service in Latin America, while his son Nolan joins the U.S. Marine Corps and distinguishes himself in the Pacific Theater. Aloysius Gantt chafes at his headquarters assignment, while evidence of his possible involvement in the death of Senator Thomas Walsh accumulates. Greg Jordan continues his role as counselor for the Giordano crime family, steering his brothers through a minefield of criminal cases involving the National Crime Syndicate and "Murder Incorporated." Ike Sawyer continues his work for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, exacerbated by new legislation, hysteria over "demon weed," and the war's proliferation of narcotics smuggling. The U.S. Navy's "Operation Underworld" secures Lucky Luciano's release from prison and he soon returns to Cuba, directing Syndicate affairs. In the Soviet Union, Leonid Babin pursues his vendetta against the FBI while struggling to survive both World War Two and ongoing purges in Moscow.
In Book V of The Bureau—Code of Honor—a grim "Cold War" settles in to replace the recent global conflagration, spawning a Red Scare at home and abroad surpassing the postwar paranoia of 1919-20. Declan O'Hara returns to FBI headquarters from service in Latin America, to find Aloysius Gantt still striving to curry J. Edgar Hoover's favor. Devon Gantt serves the Bureau in Los Angeles until he, too, is recalled to Washington at the peak of the Red-hunting 1950s. Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy leave their indelible marks on a country afraid of its own lurking shadows. When President Truman dissolves the wartime OSS, Colby Gantt transfers to its successor, the Central Intelligence Agency, joining in subversion of "dangerous" governments abroad. Ike Sawyer nears mandatory retirement age at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, but remains determined to make his last years on the job count for something, while son Payton joins the New York City Police Department, beginning a career that parallels his father's early war against black "radicals." As the USSR goes through traumatic changes, climaxed with the death of Joseph Stalin, Leonid Babin pursues his campaign to raise a son who will become a sleeper agent in America and infiltrate the FBI, destroying it from within. Their courses converge during conflicts in Korea and Indochina, while Greg Jordan and his Syndicate associates plant their flags in Cuba, launching a new age of gambling and drug smuggling into the United States, with incipient warfare brewing inside Cosa Nostra.
Book VI of The Bureau—In Honor's Name—spans events from January 1956 through publication of the Warren Report on President John Kennedy's assassination, encompassing: the Black civil rights movement and southern resistance by organized terror, plus the Hungarian rebellion and escalating warfare in Southeast Asia, the election of America's first Roman Catholic president and his Attorney General brother's campaign against organized crime, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis, JFK's assassination in Dallas and suppression of its conspiratorial details. Robert Kennedy's resignation as Attorney General ends the "Camelot" era, while the Gulf of Tonkin incident propels America toward full-scale military involvement in Vietnam. Series protagonists confront unexpected challenges, none of them emerging unscathed, costing some of them their lives. Their children grow, pursuing various careers in law enforcement or the realm of crime, some undergoing transformations that divert the courses of their lives forever.
Book No. 7 of The Bureau, Crimes of Honor, follows the surviving protagonists through the tumultuous years between 1965 and 1973. The civil rights movement expands and urban ghettos burn through "long hot summers," while the war in Southeast Asia escalates with corresponding protests in America. The FBI inaugurates new extralegal operations labeled COINTELPRO—BLACK HATE and COINTELPRO—NEW LEFT, attacking any groups and individuals who fail to meet Chief Hoover's definition of "true Americans." More high-profile assassinations rock the nation and Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the next presidential campaign, succeeded by Richard Nixon awash in Syndicate money. Once in office, Nixon heaps new fuel onto the fire in Vietnam and brings the war home, wielding lethal force against campus protesters. Black Panthers, Weathermen, and other radicals respond in kind. Ryan O'Hara joins the FBI, while his father is forced from the Bureau by Hoover. The director's death in 1972 permits Erin O'Hara to become one of the first female FBI recruits since 1924, entering the academy as burglars expose the Bureau's COINTELPRO operations and the Nixon White House lurches into Watergate. Dominic Giordano seeks to lead his Mafia family in new directions, at risk of his life. The era ends in scandal and dissension, verging on America's first resignation of a president.
Book No. 8 of The Bureau, Price of Honor, follows the surviving protagonists through the turbulent years between 1974 and 1983. For the FBI and NYPD's BOSS, pursuit of black militants and white radicals continues, sometimes with fatal results. President Nixon resigns in disgrace, while revelations made in recent years prompt formation of multiple congressional committees probing illegal acts by both the FBI and CIA. Despite cancellation of COINTELPRO before Hoover's death, the Bureau still pursues lawless tactics against perceived subversives, including a new Indian War of sorts against Native American activists. The Vietnam war ends in communist triumph, while two single-term presidents seek to salvage America's image on a global scale. A new grassroots demand for "law and order" at home, with greater security abroad, propels Ronald Reagan into the White House and toward a new would-be assassin's gun sights. Nolan O'Hara leaves the Bureau to cooperate with Senate investigators, while the CIA cleans house of all possible living embarrassments. New frontiers of conflict open in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Episode IX of the Bureau, Law of Honor, spans the troubled years from 1984 to 1992. In New York, Agent Erin O'Hara's suspicion of FBI "mole" Stephen Barnes intensifies, while the CIA discovers traitor Aldrich Ames within its own ranks. Cousins Hardy and Wyman Gantt strive to make sense of their fathers' deaths in 1983, each still pursuing divergent careers in the FBI and CIA. Dominick Giordano seeks to promote his Mafia family in New York City by increased traffic in foreign drugs, each shipment heightening his private risk. Radical terrorism continues in America and abroad, as Muslim guerillas armed and financed from Washington drive Russian troops from Afghanistan and turn their sights on America, "The Great Satan." A resurgent Ku Klux Klan troubles Dave Jordan and Fiona O'Hara in Alabama. Increasing evidence of corruption spawns the Iran-Contra scandal in Washington, threatening members of the Reagan-Bush administration with prison. NYPD Sergeant Payton Sawyer stalls retirement to deal with new threats in Gotham. For all concerned, the future forecasts peril.
In The Bureau's final episode, When Honor Dies, Hardy and Wyman Gantt continue on their paths of service to the CIA and FBI in a world fraught with terrorism emanating simultaneously from the Middle East and on the home front. Agent Erin O'Hara finds sufficient evidence to put her on the track of colleague Stephen Barnes, but not enough to file charges against him yet. Barnes presses on with his campaign to undermine the FBI. Angelo Giordano dons his brother's mantle as head of the New York Cosa Nostra family and finds himself besieged by interlopers from abroad, as well as Gotham's own historical Five Families. Ex-Sergeant Payton Sawyer seeks a way to pacify Harlem's crime-ridden streets without a badge to give him the required authority. The fates of clashing families collide in the chaos of 9/11, which will change America forever.