Roving from the parched wadis of the Middle East, to an isolated farmhouse in rural Quebec, to the crowed boutiques of Beverly Hills, master storyteller and award-winning writer John Lawrence Reynolds explores the most notorious secret societies in history, probing their origins and activities, and revealing secrets maintained and distorted over hundred of years.
Reynolds peels away the layers of speculation, paranoia and fear, and shines a brilliant light on individuals and organizations that have generated suspicion and terror over several centuries. He treats the reader to a behind-the-scenes look at rituals and initiations, artifacts and secret signs, influences and dangers. And in the telling, he uncovers a rogue's gallery of assassins, con artists, thieves, racists, drug smugglers, adulterers, pranksters and crooks.
But where does the truth lie? Does global power actually control the election of world leaders? Has an ancient mystical religion really been reduced to a length of red string selling for a dollar an inch? Are some secret societies little more than a group of boys playing at secret handshakes? From the Assassins to the Yakuza, from Freemasons to Bonesmen, shadow people and their secrets have flourished throughout history. Some fear them, some dismiss them, but everyone is fascinated by them. Secret societies fuel our imagination, and their shadows continue to fall across our daily lives.

John Lawrence Reynolds has had thirty works of fiction and nonfiction published. His work has earned two Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Mystery Novel, a National Business Book Award, and a CBC Bookie Award. His bestselling book Shadow People, tracing the development and influence of secret societies through history, was published in fourteen countries and twelve languages. He has also authored several business and investment books, including the bestselling The Naked Investor and its sequel, The Skeptical Investor, as well as his assessment of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Bubbles, Bankers & Bailouts. A Murder for Max is his first book in the Maxine Benson Mystery series. He lives in Burlington, Ontario, with his wife, Judy. For more information, visit www.wryter.ca.

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