"An exhilarating journey that
will satisfy the most avid thriller reader" - Kirkus Reviews
SYNOPSIS
A full-throttle adventure through modern Europe and the
Mediterranean ... that’s part thriller, part mystery, and all rollicking ride.
Pearce again accomplishes every
thriller writer’s aim: creating characters that the readers can root for and a
believable, fast-paced storyline. The climax and denouement bring the
storylines together neatly, but fans will see that there may yet be room for
another book in the series.
When readers last saw Eddie Grant in
Treasure of Saint-Lazare (2012), he was hot on the trail of Nazi war loot in
the company of his on-again, off-again lover, Jen. As readers return to Eddie’s
shadowy world of undercover deals and thugs in the employ of crime bosses, they
find a quieter, more mature Eddie, now married to Aurélie, a scholar of some
note, and living in pleasant domestic bliss. Onto this romantic scene come
several of Eddie’s friends, who alert him to suspicious activity within his
social circle, involving a man with criminal intentions and an interest in
gold. Shortly afterward, a mysterious murder implicates another character from
Eddie’s past. As he looks into the matter, Aurélie soon finds herself in
danger; at the same time, Jen reappears in Eddie’s life, and he’s
simultaneously drawn to her and eager to avoid falling into bed with her again.
Soon, he and his comrades must track down another ring of criminals and protect
themselves from fatal retribution.
EXCERPT
Aurélie took his arm again as they stepped off
the curb. The crowd had thinned, leaving them momentarily alone in the street
except for a young man in a red hoodie, dancing ahead to the beat of his own
private music, a figure of grace and lightness who seemed to float a few inches
above the pavement.
Halfway across, Eddie paused and turned to
Aurélie for a kiss. He pulled her even closer and she turned eagerly to meet
him — and glimpsed a dark sedan, headlights out, as it pulled quickly from
behind a parked taxi and careened around the corner toward them. At the same
moment, the taxi started to pull away and its front bumper caught the left rear
door of the sedan, whose driver ignored the scream of tearing metal and tried
to speed up, his front tires bucking and bouncing on the pavement. Aurélie
instinctively tightened her grip on Eddie’s arm to pull him out of the street.
“Go!” she cried urgently as the car bore down.
Together they took one long step before it was on them. At the last instant,
Eddie pushed her forward and she landed in a heap on the curb. He almost
escaped untouched, but the car’s left mirror scraped heavily across his hip. He
staggered and fell next to Aurélie as she shook her head, beginning to sit up.
The sedan roared away from them at high speed and
ran a red light as it turned onto Quai de la Tournelle along the Seine.
The cab driver jumped out and ran to them. “Are
you OK?” he asked. “Should I call an ambulance?”
Eddie rolled slowly onto his back and moaned.
Aurélie moved closer and asked, “Édouard?”
“I think I’m OK, but my butt's going to hurt,” he
said. He looked down and added, “These trousers have had it, but I don’t think
anything is broken. Did anybody get that bastard’s license number?"
PURCHASE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Pearce is a part-time Parisian
but lives quite happily most of the the year in Sarasota, FL. He worked as a
journalist in Washington and Europe, where he covered economics for the
International Herald Tribune and edited a business magazine. After a business
career in Sarasota, he spends his days working on his future books - The new
one, Last Stop: Paris, is a 2015 project. It is a sequel to Treasure of
Saint-Lazare.
For several months each year, he and
his wife Jan live in Paris, walk its streets, and chase down interesting
settings for future books and his blog, PartTimeParisian.com. They lived
earlier in Frankfurt, Germany, which gave him valuable insights for several of
the scenes in Last Stop: Paris.
