The Raid on Fort Purity by Rutledge

About the book

On a Caribbean cruise, travel agency owner Tina Perrone encounters a long lost lover-- Ben Foster, who is living in the West Indies after a run-in with the U.S. law. Suddenly, Ben learns that his estranged father is dying. He fears retribution by his old FBI nemesis, Crawford, should he return to the U.S. Tina smuggles Ben into the States to reconcile with his father just before the old man dies. Ben owes Tina big time.

So Tina calls for Ben to help squash a puzzling blackmail attempt on her own papa involving her trouble-prone sister, Jo Jo. With the help of an aging hippie and his contortionist girlfriend, plus a piano-playing Ute Indian, they plan to rescue Jo Jo from the presumed blackmailers: the Children of Purity religious cult in Colorado -- only to discover that Jo Jo is bedding the cult's administrator, Milo Farnsworth. Nevertheless, they spirit Jo Jo away during a high-energy cult service. Tina is shocked, however, when Jo Jo says she is the one blackmailing their papa. After a lifetime of bailing out her sister, Tina decides to practice tough love. She orders Jo Jo back to the cult to face the full consequences of taking up with Farnsworth.

But the car returning Jo Jo to the cult's compound -- Fort Purity -- is hi-jacked, and Jo Jo disappears with the thief. Tina and Ben get caught up in an FBI siege of Fort Purity commanded by Ben's enemy, Crawford. Crawford violates a truce with the cultists and a firefight sets off an avalanche obliterating the Fort. Tina runs the FBI blockade to exact family revenge upon Farnsworth but is bushwhacked and Farnsworth escapes. Inveigling an ultra-light aircraft from an air show concessionaire to take after Farnsworth, she finally subdues him on an excursion train in the mountains.

Tina and Ben are rejuvenated. Tina has at last relieved herself of the responsibility for her sister's problems. Ben revels in Crawford's inglorious retirement. Ben asks Tina to come live with him in the West Indies. She declines, concerned about her independence. But she will visit. Ben warns that he will continue trying to convince her to live on his island permanently.

More adventures for them lie ahead.

A description of THE PROBLEM WITH HARRY K.

Chicagoland travel agent Tina Perrone is confronted in her apartment by former suitor Harry Kassabian -- gone wacko from being fired as a police detective and now on the lam from both the cops and the mob. Yearning to escape from this "cruel freakin' earth," he plans to take Tina's life and then join her happily in heaven. Trouble is, Tina doesn't care to resume their relationship in any realm. So she kicks Harry out, then leaves for a conference at a nudist resort in Florida where she is surprised in the buff by her long distance lover, Ben Foster. Some surprise.

His brain too fried to take no for an answer, Harry steals Tina's car and trails her to Florida. Tina is also followed by Harry's estranged wife, Faye, who is followed herself by two clutzy hit men holding the contract on Harry. After a slight delay knocking off a redneck militia man mistaking him for an Arab terrorist, Harry corners Tina outside the resort, this time menacing a shotgun. Fast-talking until Ben can intervene, Tina is saved from an early trip to heaven -- but Harry escapes.

While the police pursue Harry, Tina and Ben hole up in the nudist resort -- where Tina is almost electrocuted in the communal hot tub. Suddenly, no place seems safe. When the case gets stalled by a dispute between the police and the FBI, Tina and Ben go after Harry on their own. Harry, smelling a trap, not only eludes their set-up in a local newspaper office; he kidnaps the publisher to be his personal biographer.

In an automobile graveyard behind the house of TV evangelists, Tina gets caught in a shootout between Harry and the hit men. Ben arranges a diversion and Tina decks Harry for good. Back at the resort, they let it all hang out in celebration--only to have Tina jumped by a knife-wielding Faye Kassabian, out to satisfy a long-held grudge. Aided by a near-sighted alligator, Tina subdues Faye.

HARRY K. is another zany adventure in a series about the indefatigable Tina Perrone, and her prankish lover, Ben Foster--two people working on a continent-apart relationship while helping each other into and out of fixes.