Dirty Fracking Business

Dirty Fracking Business

Peter Ralph

Poetry / Classics / Philosophy

The water and the air in the Fisher Valley were pristine before the coal seam gas companies arrived with government-endorsed gas exploration and development licences. Then they marched roughshod over the owners of privately owned, highly productive farming and grazing land, paying them little in the way of compensation. After drilling, they pumped water, sand and toxic chemicals at high pressure hundreds of metres into the ground in a process known as 'fracking', which exploded the coal seams and released the methane, while giving scant attention to the ground, air and water pollution they were creating. When little Charlie Paxton, aged only six, dies from a mysterious form of cancer, his father, Charles Paxton, swears to have his revenge. Charles is determined to stop the gas companies even if it means blowing up their wells and blocking their access to agricultural properties. But big gas is powerful and backed by rapacious governments who won't hesitate to use their police and army to smash through blockades. Can a small group of farmers, greens and conservatives stand against the might of big gas and the governments complicit in helping it? -- "I moved to the country for peace and quiet and little did I know that I would become embroiled in the battle of my life. Peter Ralph brings to light the everyday struggle of people who find their lives suddenly caught up with one of the most insidious industries in the world - Coal Seam Gas." (-Dayne Pratzky, a.k.a. 'The Frackman') -- The author, Peter Ralph, was a CEO of a large private company that he took public in the early nineties before becoming a successful share and derivatives trader. He now spends much of his time writing, and the breadth of his business career has provided him with a background and insights well suited to writing suspenseful business and topical novels. He is the author of "Collins Street Whores" and "The CEO," and co-authored "Pass the Sugar" with Joe Hachem.
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Blood Gold in the Congo

Blood Gold in the Congo

Peter Ralph

Poetry / Classics / Philosophy

Bronze Medal Winner of 2018 Readers' Favorite Book Awards for Fiction-Thrillers-Political. * When twelve-year-old Congolese boy, Joseph Muamba, is sold to a wealthy American family he wants to die. Eventually, he comes to love the family and lives the life of the all-American boy. However, he cannot rid himself of a nagging feeling that he has a greater calling in life. Fourteen years later he competes at the Beijing Olympics for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and wins his birth country’s first ever medal – gold in the decathlon. However, the nagging feeling persists, not satisfied with Olympic gold. Revered, he returns to the Congo as a guest of the president and is mobbed by adoring crowds. Maya Tansi, his closest childhood friend, has metamorphosed into a beautiful woman, and they become reacquainted. When Maya tells him Western countries are bribing politicians and plundering the country’s mineral wealth, he does not believe her. He soon finds Maya is right. Government induced bribery, corruption, rape, and murder are taking place in the Congo on a grand scale. Western and Chinese mining companies are ripping gold and minerals out of the earth without paying compensation or taxes. When the poor, oppressed people protest, they are imprisoned or murdered. Finally, Joseph realizes what his calling is, but it involves risking his life, and the lives of those whom he loves. Can he bring down rapacious, Western billionaires and an evil government?
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The CEO

The CEO

Peter Ralph

Poetry / Classics / Philosophy

Douglas Aspine knew that being CEO of a public company was twenty times more lucrative than winning the lottery. He was forty-five and time was running out when fate dealt him an unexpected opportunity. The company was old, staid and well-respected but it was under performing and Aspine was determined to turn it around *no matter who he had to crush. * Soon he was at war with the company's employees, unions, suppliers, financiers and co-directors * but nothing was going to stop him. * Not his chairman, not his wife, not his mistress, not the anonymous death threats and definitely not the press. Aspine could almost taste the glory, the riches and peer recognition he'd craved for so long. He knew he had countless detractors and enemies who he contemptuously labelled "losers"and paid no heed to. Would this prove to be a miscalculation of monumental proportions or would he prevail?
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White Collar Blackmail

White Collar Blackmail

Peter Ralph

Poetry / Classics / Philosophy

Directors and executives of public corporations are dying in mysterious circumstances. .Their only connection is irregular share dealings that took place in their companies before their deaths. When young auditor, Todd Hansen, runs up a huge gambling debt with illegal bookies, he finds himself in serious trouble. The only way he can pay them is by providing confidential information about his firm’s corporate clients. Caught, and sentenced to nine years in New York’s toughest prison, Todd is given a way out BUT it’s dangerous. There are those who think they’d be safer if he was dead. Will a chance meeting with a Mafia boss in prison save Todd?
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Revenge of the CEO

Revenge of the CEO

Peter Ralph

Poetry / Classics / Philosophy

What would you do if you were framed and sentenced to twenty years in an Asian prison? Would it make any difference if the heinous crimes that you’d gotten away with carried far longer sentences? Would knowing that your actions led directly to the suicide of your financial controller prick your conscience? Blind hate kept Douglas Aspine alive in Changi Prison. He had no conscience or compassion for those he had hurt, only the lust for revenge. Would this evil man succeed in bringing down those who had framed him?
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