James Becker

Terrorists plan to attack Minnesota's Prairie River Nuclear Power Plant, but they're not your typical band of Islamic extremists. True, there's an al Qaeda connection. But the heart of the 'terror cell' is homegrown, right here in the United States. James "Beck" Becker is a former elite U.S. government intelligence operative who has retired to his childhood hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota – just six miles down the Mississippi from the Prairie River Power Station. He recognizes connections between seemingly unrelated incidents – a murdered agronomy professor, a missing lab assistant, an international cell call, a stolen fertilizer truck, an explosion in the street in front of City Hall – but can't piece the story together in enough detail to convince government authorities that a larger threat exists. Only his American Indian friend, "Bull," will help Beck defuse the threat. So it's Beck and Bull versus the best terror cell west of the Mississippi. May the better men win.

After decades of clandestine government operations, James "Beck" Becker and his wife Elizabeth return to Beck's childhood home town to enjoy a settled retirement in the small Mississippi river community of Red Wing, Minnesota. But "settled" is a relative term and no matter where Beck goes, intrigue follows. When Minneapolis computer genius, Katherine Whitson, disappears under peculiar circumstances, her husband exploits a sympathetic Red Wing acquaintance to enlist Beck's aid in finding her. As Beck searches for Katherine, the tangled trail leads from her luxury Minneapolis Warehouse District condo, through her husband's extra-marital escapades, past the entrenched hierarchy of elite computer professionals, and into the mind-bending world inside computer microprocessors. Katherine's kidnapping is clearly more complicated than a typical abduction. As it turns out, the Beckers must use all of their considerable experience - his as a military intelligence operative, hers as a CIA code-cracker - to save Katherine and bring her abductors to justice.

Former military intelligence operative, James "Beck" Becker and his CIA code-cracking wife, Beth, have retired to Beck's hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota. Their retirement has already proven more exhilarating than they'd expected. But they could never have anticipated the new source of crime and intrigue in their small community. A Mexican drug cartel has set up shop a few miles down the road. And they're not just selling. The new meth production facility is the largest north of the Rio Grande. To complicate matters further, Terry "Bull" Red Feather's former comrade-in-arms has come to visit. And he's on a mission. His decades-long assault on the cartels is coming to a head. His plan is to blow up the drug plant . . . if he can find it. He wants Bull to help. The Beckers' challenge? To dismantle cartel operations before a full-blown drug war breaks out in Red Wing. THE COVERT ELEMENT has the characters you love, battling the cartels you'll learn to despise.

In response to recent turmoil in Egypt's intelligence community, the CIA has recalled Beth Becker to active duty. Though she accepts the assignment, the backstabbing and deceit she finds festering within the Agency remind her why she retired from government work. Meanwhile, her husband, "Beck," stays home in Red Wing, helping Chief Deputy Sheriff, Doug "Gunner" Gunderson, formulate what should be routine security plans for a visiting dignitary. But a less than stellar private security firm, and a determined sniper, result in a crisis situation that stretches our heroes' abilities to their limits. Filled with intrigue, humor, and ripped-from-the-headlines action, THE EXILED ELEMENT will remind you why you came to love the Beckers in the first place.

The scientific community declared the North Korean "weather satellite" dead on arrival in space. And until recently, the scientists were right. But now the satellite has awakened and the Kim regime wastes no time in launching its secret space-based weapon against the American mainland. Unfortunately, the North Koreans' aim is bad and their package lands in the middle of nowhere-Ottawa County, Minnesota-where the deadly delivery sets in motion a sequence of events even its creators in Pyongyang could never have anticipated. James "Beck" Becker has retired from a twenty-year career serving his country as a military intelligence operative and now practices law in his childhood hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota. When local huckster Rodney Holton seeks his legal advice regarding a meteor strike on Rodney's farm in rural Red Wing, Beck suspects that the "meteor" may be more (or possibly less) than a natural phenomenon-a suspicion that is confirmed when the FBI rolls into town looking for the mysterious space rock. But before the authorities can get their hands on the meteor, it vanishes from Rodney's farm, leaving Beck and the feds behind to deal with an angry farmer and a troubling circumstance-Rodney's cattle have begun to get sick.