Synopses & Reviews
Raymond Khoury, the international bestselling author of The Last Templar, is back with another ingenious, fast-paced thriller that straddles present-day NYC and Russia in the early 1900sthe time of the infamous Rasputin and his mysterious rise to power.
FBI special agent Sean Reilly is tasked with a delicate case. A Russian diplomat seems to have committed suicide by jumping out of a sixth-floor window in Queens, New York. The apartments owners are missing, while a faceless killer known only as Koscheythe Deathless”is roaming the city and leaving a trail of death in his wake.
Joined by Russian FSB agent Larisa Tchoumitcheva, Reillys investigation soon uncovers a deadly, desperate search for a mysterious device whose origins reach back in time to the darkest days of the Cold War and to Imperial Russia. A device that, in the wrong hands, could have a devastating impact on our world.
Packed with the twists and suspense, the impeccable historical research, and the present and past story lines that Khourys fans have come to expect, Rasputins Shadow will keep readers turning pages long into the night.
Review
“An action-packed, engrossing book…[Christopher’s] plots are so intricately woven that the reader is swept away.”—Fresh Fiction on Red Templar
Review
"Nevala-Lee's cerebral, exciting debut proves there's plenty of life left in the Da Vinci Code-style thriller as long as fresh venues and original characters enhance the familiar plot elements and genre tropes...Leaves a few loose ends to be resolved in what is sure to be the eagerly awaited sequel."
Review
"Alec Nevala-Lee comes roaring out of the gate with a novel that's as thrilling as it is thought-provoking, as unexpected as it is erudite. The Icon Thief is a wild ride through a fascinating and morally complex world, a puzzle Duchamp himself would have applauded. Bravo."
Review
Alec Nevala-Lee is no debut author; he must have been a thriller writer in some past life. This one has everything: great writing, great characters, great story, great bad guy....The Icon Thief is smart, sophisticated, and has enough fast-paced action to keep anyone up past midnight."
Review
"Twists and turns aplenty....Add a storyline where almost nothing is as it first appears, and where the plot turns around on itself to reveal startling contradictions, and the result is a book that grips and holds the reader like a vise. I devoured it in a single sitting."
Review
Praise for the Work of Robert J. Mrazek
“Amazing...literate, exciting, poignant, and engrossing.”—Nelson DeMille
“A rattling good adventure story.”—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of War on the Waters
“A fast-paced thriller laced with violence and filled with unexpected twists that keep the reader guessing to the last page.”—Rennie Airth, author of River of Darkness
“A first-rate World War II adventure.”—Susan Isaacs, New York Times bestselling author of Goldberg Variations
“Suspense and intrigue woven into the fabric of...history.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A superb piece of literature, rich in texture and of surpassing literary merit.”—Robert K. Krick, author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and Lees Colonel
Review
Praise for the novels of Raymond Khoury
“[Khoury] has an intense brand of storytelling all his own.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Berry
“History, mystery, suspense, and action—Khoury knows the recipe for a good read.”—Library Journal
“Khourys thrillers engage the readers mind, even as they move at a breakneck pace.”—Booklist (Starred Review)
“A world-class writer of purebred thrillers.”—The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Review
Praise for the Novels of Secrets
Skin of the Wolf
“Talk about a roller-coaster ride!”—Popcorn Reads
“Those familiar with Stephenie Meyers Twilight saga will appreciate the depiction of Noantri and shape-shifters, while fans of Katherine Neville, Steve Berry, and Raymond Khoury will enjoy the relic element.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“A terrifying story.”—Suspense Magazine
“A well-crafted supernatural-religious thriller.”—Booklist
Blood of the Lamb
“Wow…totally unlike any novel ever written about vampires, or secret societies, or Roman art mysteries, or Vatican conspiracies.”— New York Times bestselling author Katherine Neville
“You never quite catch your breath…What more could you want from a thriller?”—New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry
“Fresh, compelling.”—Leslie S. Klinger, editor of The New Annotated Dracula
“A first-rate thriller.”—Booklist
“[An] audacious supernatural-religious thriller.”—Publishers Weekly
“An intricate puzzle of a novel…I loved it.”—F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series
Synopsis
A man in search of the truth-against an ancient brotherhood that uses secrecy as the ultimate weapon. In the 14th century, Templar knight Jean de St. Clair was tasked with piloting the order's treasure-laden fleets off the coast of France. To this end, he used the Jacob's Staff-a nautical instrument supposedly developed in his own time. But retired Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday possesses a Staff he found in the hands of a 4,000 year-old Egyptian mummy. Holliday suspects that St. Clair may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of the ruthless, enigmatic Templars.
But there are those who believe that some questions should remain unanswered. And that the answers Holliday seeks should go with him to the grave...
Synopsis
An ancient secret. A lost city. A treasure that could change the world.In search of a Spanish galleon in the Caribbean, archaeologist Finn Ryan and her partner Lord Billy Pilgrim find evidence of a lost Aztec Codex. The invaluable book created by 15th- century explorer and accused heretic Hernan Cortez is said to reveal the secret location of the lost City of Gold. But they are not alone in their quest.
Also on the trail is the head of a menacing religious cadre who?d kill to get it first, and a sociopathic billionaire with his own sinister motives. But while running for their lives, Finn and Billy come upon a more explosive secret that will take them from the Yucatan jungles to the Sonoran Desert, where the stakes are life and death.
Synopsis
Retired Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday is swept into an adventure as deadly as it is secretive when an archaeologist friend makes a bizarre find in Ethiopia. But when he follows a trail of clues through the chaotic and lawless horn of Africa, he finds himself hunted as he comes closer to a priceless treasure that can only be found by those who can solve a riddle from the past.
Synopsis
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Aztec Heresy A mystery that spans the past
A conspiracy that lives on in the heart of an ancient order...
Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday had resigned himself to ending his career teaching at West Point. When his uncle passes away, Holliday discovers a medieval sword-wrapped in Adolf Hitler's personal battle standard. But when someone burns down his uncle's house in an attempt to retrieve the sword, Holliday realizes that he's being drawn into a war that has been fought for centuries-a war in which he may be the next casualty.
Synopsis
In Rome, the assassination of the Pope on Christmas Day sets off a massive investigation that stretches across the globe. But behind the veil of Rex Deus-the Templar cabal that silently wields power in the twenty-first century-the plot has only just begun.
When retired Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday uncovers the true motive behind the pontiff's murder, he must unravel a deadly design to extend the Templar influence to the highest levels of power.
Synopsis
From the
USA Today bestselling author of
The Lucifer Gospel There is truth in art. But the truth can kill.
Young archaeologist Finn Ryan is laboring for a London auction house when she gets some unlikely luck. Along with the handsome young nobleman Billy Pilgrim, she's inherited a house in Amsterdam, a cargo ship off Borneo South Pacific, and what appears to be a fake Rembrandt.
But the fake hides a real Rembrandt portrait, which in turn hides a clue to a centuries-old mystery. Finn and Billy aren't the only ones who know what is at stake-and what is waiting to be found at the bottom of the South Pacific. Pursued around the globe by ruthless adversaries, Finn and Billy are thrown into the hunt for a forgotten treasure that could change their lives forever-or end their lives in an instant.
Synopsis
Young archaeologist Finn Ryan and charismatic pilot and photographer Virgil Hilts are scouring the Sahara for the long-lost tomb of an apostle. But they find something they weren’t looking for: signs of a decades-old murder, along with an ancient Roman medallion bearing the infamous name of a fallen archangel. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that they’ve found a piece of a much bigger puzzle—and a trail of clues that could get them killed.
Forced to flee from a relentless enemy, Finn and Virgil are pursued across the globe. From the sinister ruins of an ancient monastery to a sunken ship in the Caribbean, the two desperately search for a truth that can save their lives, but might shake the foundations of history...
Synopsis
From the USA Today Bestselling author of The Sword of the Templars and The Aztec Heresy Some secrets are too great to bear...
Retired Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday has reluctantly settled into his teaching position at West Point when young Israeli archaeologist Rafi Wanounou comes to him with desperate news.
Holliday's niece—and Rafi's fiancé—Peggy has been kidnapped. Holliday sets out with Rafi to find the only family he has left. But their search for Peggy will lead them to a trail of clues that spans across the globe, and into the heart of a conspiracy involving an ancient Egyptian legend and the darkest secrets of the Order of Templar Knights.
Secrets that, once known, cannot be survived...
Synopsis
Life may imitate art...but death follows it.
While studying art history at New York University, brilliant and beautiful Finn Ryan makes a startling discovery: a Michelangelo drawing of a dissected corpse-supposedly from the artist's near-mythical notebook. But that very night, someone breaks into her apartment-murdering her boyfriend and stealing the sketches she made of the drawing. Fleeing for her life, Finn heads to the address her mother had given her for emergencies, where she finds the enigmatic antiquarian book dealer, Michael Valentine. Together, they embark on a desperate race through the city-and through the pages of history itself-to expose an electrifying secret from the final days of World War II-a secret that lies in the dark labyrinthine heart of the Vatican.
Synopsis
A Templar legend is revealed as one man’s obsession takes him on a globe-spanning quest into the jungles of the Amazon in the new novel from New York Times bestselling author Paul Christopher… Retired Army Ranger John Holliday has thwarted the plots of Rex Deus, the twenty-first-century incarnation of the Templars, all over the world. Now, the lost journal of explorer Percy Fawcett leads Holliday into the South American jungles—and a Templar mystery…
Trailed by an infamous tomb raider and menaced by a tribe of hostile natives, Holliday and his crew uncover a five-hundred-year-old society hidden in the cauldron of the Amazon. Descendants of the Templar Knights, they exist for one reason: to hide and protect the holy artifact taken from the original Temple of Jerusalem by the first Templars: the legendary Ark of the Covenant.
Synopsis
Assessing the contents of a lavish English estate, museum conservator Angela Lewis discovers a crate full of sealed pottery jars-one of which holds a parchment which describes the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.
For Angela, the find is a miracle-a written reference to Jesus outside of the New Testament. But her discovery draws her and her husband, Chris, into a centuries-old race for the truth that they may not win...or survive.
Synopsis
A controversial masterpiece resurfaces in Budapest. A ballerina's headless corpse is found beneath the boardwalk at Brighton Beach. And New York's Russian mob is about to collide with the equally ruthless art world...
Maddy Blume, an ambitious young art buyer for a Manhattan hedge fund, is desperate to track down a priceless painting by Marcel Duchamp, the most influential artist of the twentieth century. The discovery of a womans decapitated body thrusts criminal investigator Alan Powell into a search for the same painting, with its enigmatic image of a headless nude. And a Russian thief and assassin known as the Scythian must steal the painting to save his reputation and his life. The murderous race is on. And in the lead is an insidious secret society intent on reclaiming the painting for reasons of its own and by any means necessary
.
Synopsis
A controversial masterpiece resurfaces in Budapest. A ballerina's headless corpse is found beneath the boardwalk at Brighton Beach. And New York's Russian mob is about to collide with the equally ruthless art world...
Maddy Blume, an ambitious young art buyer for a Manhattan hedge fund, is desperate to track down a priceless painting by Marcel Duchamp, the most influential artist of the twentieth century. The discovery of a womans decapitated body thrusts criminal investigator Alan Powell into a search for the same painting, with its enigmatic image of a headless nude. And a Russian thief and assassin known as the Scythian must steal the painting to save his reputation and his life. The murderous race is on. And in the lead is an insidious secret society intent on reclaiming the painting for reasons of its own and by any means necessary
.
Synopsis
Along the Greenland ice cap, an expedition team makes an astounding discovery. Buried five hundred feet below the ice cap is the wreckage of an ancient shipand nine perfectly preserved Vikings. Rune markings indicate it went missing in 1016 BC.
Energized by the find, retired Air Force general Steven Macaulay assembles the foremost scholars of Norse archaeology, including Harvard academic and master decoder Lexy Vaughan. But the mission is violently sabotagedbecause this discovery holds the key to a mystery that will change the human race.
To put together the pieces of the puzzle, Macaulay and Lexy plunge headlong into a web of chaos and betrayalall the while hunted by a covert primeval society that will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
Synopsis
In the first Novel of Secrets, Blood of the Lamb, Sam Cabot upended religious history with hair-raising twists that left readers reelingand hungry for more. Now his genre-bending series” (Popcorn Reads) continues as an ancient evil rises in the modern world with each full moon.
It was shocking enough for Father Thomas Kelly to discover the community of vampires known as the Noantri. Even more unsettling: Two colleagues, art historian Livia Pietro and scholar Spencer George, were among them. Now the three of them are working together in New York City, where Livia is attending a conference on Native American art. But when Spencer is attacked in Central Park by a wolf, theyre plunged into a world where Iroquois lore and the doctrines of the Catholic Church have collided, resulting in a catastrophic revelation.
The attack on Spencer was not random, nor was it made by a normal wolf. It was a violent, calculated strike in a quest for power and domination that could destroy millions of livesbecause under a full moon in Manhattan, everyone is going to be prey....
Synopsis
A Templar legend is revealed as one man’s obsession takes him on a globe-spanning quest into the jungles of the Amazon in the new novel from New York Times bestselling author Paul Christopher… Retired Army Ranger John Holliday has thwarted the plots of Rex Deus, the twenty-first-century incarnation of the Templars, all over the world. Now, the lost journal of explorer Percy Fawcett leads Holliday into the South American jungles—and a Templar mystery…
Trailed by an infamous tomb raider and menaced by a tribe of hostile natives, Holliday and his crew uncover a five-hundred-year-old society hidden in the cauldron of the Amazon. Descendants of the Templar Knights, they exist for one reason: to hide and protect the holy artifact taken from the original Temple of Jerusalem by the first Templars: the legendary Ark of the Covenant.
About the Author
Sam Cabot is a pseudonym for Carlos Dews and S.J. Rozan.
Carlos Dews is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English Language and Literature at John Cabot University where he directs the Institute for Creative Writing and Literary Translation. He lives in Rome, Italy.
S.J. Rozan is author of many critically acclaimed novels and short stories which have won crime fiction's greatest honors, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Macavity, and Nero awards. Born and raised in the Bronx, Rozan now lives in lower Manhattan.