Kill the Reporter
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Harker uncovers a cult whose members believe in peace, love, understanding, and torture
Rudolph Franklin thinks his biggest problem is reelection. A battle with a fellow senator about military spending is getting ugly, and if he canât scrap out a victory, his career will be dead in the water. He calls Harker, a crack investigative reporter, to leak a story for him. Franklin thinks his problems are politicalâuntil his daughter disappears.Â
In Barbarannâs bedroom, Harker finds pamphlets for the Childrenâs Crusade, a hippy-dippy cult best known for selling buttons and hard candy on street corners. But Harker learns about the crusadeâs darker sideâthe enforcers charged with keeping members in line, and keeping the press from asking questions. His first warning is a dead cat, hung from the ceiling of his hotel room, paw sliced off. If he crosses the Crusade again, the next paw they take will be his own.Â
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Marc Olden (1933â2003) was the author of forty mystery and suspense novels. Born in Baltimore, he began writing while working in New York as a Broadway publicist. His first book, Angela Davis (1973), was a nonfiction study of the controversial Black Panther. In 1973 he also published Narc, under the name Robert Hawke, beginning a hard-boiled nine-book series about a federal narcotics agent. Â
A year later, Black Samurai introduced Robert Sand, a martial arts expert who becomes the first non-Japanese student of a samurai master. Based on Oldenâs own interest in martial arts, which led him to the advanced ranks of karate and aikido, the novel spawned a successful eight-book series. Olden continued writing for the next three decades, often drawing on his fascination with Japanese culture and history.Â
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