The World War One battlefield that bulged out around Ypres, Belgium, was one of the most horrific killing grounds of the bloody, four-year conflict. Not familiar with the proper pronunciation of "Ypres," (EE-pruh), the Allied soldiers called the sector "Wipers." The Allies took thousands of casualties daily there from 1914 to 1918. Unable to break the German line, a plan was made to dig 5 miles of tunnels under No Man's Land, planting charges, and blowing up the enemy from below. This novel follows a British miner-turned-soldier and his unlikely companion: a mischievous, wisecracking soldier...

Orel Hackworth is new to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1957. A news correspondent, he lives for finding the "big story." That "big story" finds him, though, when 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, go on a two-state killing spree, leaving eleven bodies behind. For three days in January, 1958, Lincoln is gripped in fear. The entire nation is aghast, watching the murders unfold on television, a new experience for many Americans. Even foreign media stays abreast of the situation on the Great Plains. With the help of a friend in the FBI's Lincoln office,...