Michael Beck

For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends,...

Court-appointed lawyer Jake Brigance puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line to defend a sixteen-year-old suspect who is accused of killing a local deputy and is facing the death penalty.

Just as Bruce Cable's Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for the island. The hurricane is devastating: homes and condos are leveled, hotels and storefronts ruined, streets flooded, and a dozen people lose their lives. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce's and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson's injuries suggests...

Wall street millionaire Carl Trudeau purchases an unsuspecting candidate to run for Supreme Court judge when a Mississippi rules agains one of his chemical companies for dumping toxic waste into the towns water supply causing a cancer cluster.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In 1970, Willie Traynor comes to Clanton, Mississippi, in a Triumph Spitfire and a fog of vague ambitions. Within a year, the twenty-three-year-old finds himself the owner of Ford County’s only newspaper, famous for its well-crafted obituaries. While the rest of America is in the grips of turmoil, Clanton lives on the edge of another age—until the brutal murder of a young mother

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In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence ... as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town ... Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young man. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle -- and takes justice into...

Law professor Ray Atlee and his troublesome younger brother Forrest are called home to Clanton, Mississippi by their dying father, Judge Atlee, but when the judge dies before the meeting can take place, Ray is left to untangle an old family secret.

According to Fresh Expressions U.S., "a Fresh Expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of those who are not yet part of any church." Fresh Expressions are introducing people to Jesus, expanding the kingdom, and revitalizing churches. Congregations need a practical and theological resource that can help them cultivate Fresh Expressions. As consultants who work nationwide and as innovative pastors,...

What is the future of the church in North America? Churches are closing faster than new ones can be planted. Existing churches engaged in effective evangelism beyond the tired tactics of attractional approaches are increasingly rare. One of the major pitfalls of the past few decades is "either/or" thinking-either attractional or missional; traditional or contemporary; old or new. In Deep Roots, Wild Branches, missiologist and church planter Dr. Michael...

Fresh Expressions is a canary in the coal mine, alerting congregations to reevaluate what the Church is, where and when it can happen, and who can lead it. Church as we know it is inaccessible to most people. A fundamental premise of the movement is that Church can become accessible again by emerging in every nook and cranny where life already happens. Fresh Expressions is based in simplification, returning to basic scriptural principles, and a recovery...