When Gordo O’Connor answers the doorbell one night while he is home alone with his sons, he encounters an angry man who shoots him in the chest. Fortunately he escapes serious injury, but the gunshot begins a chain of events that alters the course of his life forever. Gordo, his attorney wife, Ana, and their two young boys flee Galveston Island. None of them realizes that they will never again sleep in Pilot House, the graceful Victorian home that they love. As they try to regain control of their lives, a beach house on the island’s far West End becomes a temporary refuge. Gordo is conscious of every curious sound, suspicious of strangers, and reluctantly begins to carry his father’s sleek Beretta .380. Meanwhile, the police are oddly uninterested in the case, implying that Gordo may know more than he reveals about the shooter and his motivation. Gordo and Ana realize they are on their own. As they watch their once idyllic world come apart, each faces sexual temptation. Gordo moves his family to the Texas Hill Country, and even that is not far enough away. Isle of Misfortune reaches a gripping conclusion when the stalker confronts Gordo for the last time. Geoffrey Leavenworth knows whereof he writes. In 1994 he was shot by an unknown assailant who apparently had a fixation either on Leavenworth or his family. The shooter was never caught, and the family is cautious and vigilant to this day.

Isle of Misfortune

Literature & Fiction

Leavenworth, Geoffrey

Literary

TCU Press

Historic Galveston

Arts & Photography

Architecture

Herring Press

James P. Simpson is a gifted storyteller whose life embraced some of the most significant events of the 20th century. He is the last survivor of the small team that investigated and prosecuted the forces of organized crime on Galveston Island 50 years ago. His tales of defeating the Maceo gambling empire, without the assistance of local law enforcement, add a colorful chapter to Texas history. His memories of a Depression-era childhood are full of charming and bittersweet moments. Some of the most insightful writing about America's air war in Europe appears in accounts of his 59 bombing missions over France and Germany. Adventure often gives way to misadventure in his hilarious chronicle of life as an FBI agent in Chicago and Minnesota. And as a trial lawyer in Galveston County, Jim Simpson tackles some of the area's most important litigation, enthralling all with his folksy, eloquent voice-in court, in life, and in these pages. James P. Simpson is a retired trial lawyer who now lives in League City, Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and the FBI Academy. In 1957, as Special Assistant Attorney General, he led a small team of investigators who were responsible for closing scores of gambling enterprises, houses of prostitution, and other illicit businesses on Galveston Island, ending decades of organized crime. Geoffrey Leavenworth is the author of Isle of Misfortune, a novel, and the architecture volume, Historic Galveston. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Texas Monthly, Time, and many other publications.

Flak Bait: Eight Decades Dodging Flak as a Bombardier, FBI Agent, Trial Lawyer, and Texas Maverick

Biographies & Memoirs

Simpson, James P.

Historical

Eakin Press

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