It was the chilly season and a Monday morning, and Cool Jones sat at his Pro doing what he liked least, which was writing a report on a fire claim. Something seemed wrong--real wrong--but Cool didn't know yet what was up. Also, he had logged in, and checked out, his bank balance and saw $10,000 that was not his. Cool knew that Santa Claus was just a story that grownups made up for kids, and he was damn sure he didn't know anyone who liked him enough to give him a $10,000 Christmas gift. Cool figured it would be one of those days as he got on the phone to the bank to and give them what-for...

Reg, a big-dreaming boy in a small Canadian town, is the star of this collection of related stories. In Sundown, Great Elizabeth, he fights with his stepmother, avoids his father and tolerates his kid sister. Alternately repelled and intrigued by his fellow Sundowners, he thinks, 'I've got to get out of here.' Coming of age, Reg moves to booming, bustling Bayporte and attends huge, impersonal Northup University. After falling in and out of love a few times, he marries a local rich girl and begins a moderately fulfilling career as an actor (both professionally and personally). Despite his new...

It is February, and the World Winter Games will soon begin in Bayporte, Great Elizabeth, Canada. Andy Kennedy--ex-NHL star, ex-husband, excommunicant from the Canadian Dream--just wants to stay drunk and get warm. Homeless and alcoholic, he seeks comfort in the dark bars and dingy flophouses of skid row. With his street "family"--pals Annie and Joey--Andy tries to salvage the remnants of his shattered life as the cops and courts try to "clean up the streets" in preparation for the Games.

Desiree Dupree, KCA radio's "Ragin' Cajun," is on the air each weeknight, shaking up the Bay Area. Armed with a high school diploma and a Ph.D. in common sense--"no B.A., no B.S."--she tells San Franciscans, and everyone else who cares to listen, what she thinks of the War on Drugs, terrorism, the NFL and, it seems, everything else the people out there can throw at her. Her listeners seethe as her ratings soar. But someone wants to shut her up for good. When he calls in with threats, KCA calls in the cops. Detective Harris Cavanaugh enters the scene--and Desiree's life--as the mystery caller...

At the Canadian Open golf tournament in Bayporte, native son Teddy Crossley holds the lead over his pal (and fellow Canuck) Troy Frisby and superstar Tiger Woods. Can Teddy hold off these world-class opponents, and what can he do about his wife--and two ex-wives--who want a piece of him?

Clancy Wasserman is God's lonely man: pushing fifty, twice divorced and covering men's golf for a Canadian sports magazine. Out of boredom, he checks out the LPGA and meets teen phenom Vicki Vachon, whose stunning looks and precocious talent promise to make her the Next Big Thing in women's sports. But not everyone is a Vicki fan, and one person in particular wants to take her out of competition--permanently.

A zany novel about steroids in professional sports. The Bayporte Bullies, Canada's hopeless and helpless NHL team, goes from worst to first, and everybody's wondering why. Bullies forward Christopher Crossley (known to all as Chris Cross), knows what's going on but is saying nothing. Ever since being turned on to performance-enhancing drugs, Cross has gotten his teammates "juiced," and they're well on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. But something's bugging him: is a juicer and a cheater really a champion?

Paul Steeves, a San Franciscan, transcends his working-class roots to become a Silicon Valley high-technology entrepreneur. The oldest of three children, Steeves makes top grades in high school, helps out at his father's delicatessen and dreams of one day owning the world (or at least a large chunk of it). While attending People's University, Steeves and his best friend Hank build the Cherry, a viable desktop computer that both men believe will revolutionize the world (or, at the very least, become an enormously popular toy). Steeves, a part-time employee at a Market Street arcade called...