Book Description

KILLING EVE meets THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

Cold War spy's deceits rise through time to haunt his American son, in a dual narrative split between postwar Berlin and early twentieth-century New York City. Past becomes prologue as a father's secret life and untimely death begin to make treacherous sense before delivering one final surprise.

About the Protagonist

Skilled and capable, Con Mathis works for the New York District Attorney's office. He's movie-star handsome, charming, well educated, haunted by his expat German father's suicide, and devoted to his mother Ruth and sister Sophie.

The Inciting Incident

Having completed an undercover assignment investigating the Wall Street money laundering operation of a Russian kingpin, he unwinds at a Manhattan bar, drinks too much and meets Emmy, a compelling German woman he thinks could be his soul mate. The next day, hungover and foggy, he realizes that he lost his keys and wallet at her place and needs to go back, but he can't remember exactly where she lives.

The Rising Tension

By the time he finds her, the woman he felt so drawn to turns out to be unstable, even dangerous. Far from a stranger, Emmy is a missive from his late father's Cold War past.

The Conflict

In meeting Emmy, Con's search for meaning in his father's long-ago suicide collides with his hidden life as a Stasi agent in Cold War Berlin. As the discoveries become more troubling, Con launches an investigation that inadvertently puts his beloved American mother and sister at risk.