Girls Lost

Best friends, Akemi and Maria do everything together including lunch at school and Friday night sleepovers at each other's home. But when they disappear following a school volleyball game, their world and everyone's close to them, turns upside down.

Retired army intel officer, Parker McLeod, proprietor of The Garhole Bar on the far west end of Galveston Island only wants to mind his own business and stay out of other people's way.

But when he learns one of the missing girls is the grand- daughter of his friend, Parker rolls into action. He teams with the feisty female detective of Galveston PD's juvenile division. Knowing that every hour is critical, Parker and the detective race against the clock to find the girls.

As the search intensifies, Parker must deal with the girl's grandfather who insists on running his own search. Parker is caught in the impossible task of juggling between the two and yet keeping focus on the prize, the safe return of the girls.

As a fourth generation Texan and Galveston resident, A. Hardy Roper writes from a wealth of knowledge about the island's storied past and vibrant present. Mr. Roper's great grandparents arrived from Germany in the 1852 and entered through the Port of Galveston, at the time, second only to New York for immigrant destination.Today's Galveston is an eclectic mixture of 'old money' and Victorian mansions checkered among indigent neighborhoods of African Americans and Hispanics, all weaved tightly together, as if huddled against the onslaught of the next storm like the epic 1900 hurricane that claimed 6,000 lives.From its 19th Century past of pirates and buried treasures, to its 20th Century lifestyle of bootlegging, bawdy houses and gambling, Galveston Island offers an endless setting for mystery and intrigue.A. Hardy Roper has studied its culture and its history. His Parker McLeod thrillers weave an intricate path of deceit and mayhem as the city struggles to balance its colorful past with the inevitable collision of sleepy 'island life' and the hurried weekend rush as the playground of Houston's wealthy baby-boomers.Contact Hardy on Facebookwww.facebook.com/TheGarholeBar