BookTrib's Bites: Globetrotting Thrillers - Bucharest, Boston, Prague, Paris

(NewsUSA)

"The Bucharest Dossier"
by William Maz

"The Bourne Identity" meets John le Carré's "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold." CIA analyst Bill Hefflin is a man apart -- apart from life, apart from his homeland and apart from love. At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, Hefflin -- a disillusioned Romanian expat -- arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, a man code-named Boris.

As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems … including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions. With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris, the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings. Purchase at https://amzn.to/3ApLE10.

"The Burden of Innocence"
by John Nardizzi

Innocence is pain when you're locked in a cage. Private investigators Ray Infantino and Tania Kong take on the case of Sam Langford, a man framed for a murder committed by a crime boss at the height of his powers. The gangsters know that, in the new Boston, vulnerable witnesses they manipulated years ago are shaky.

Old bones will not stay buried forever. When a vicious gangster and a corrupt cop team up to derail the investigation, the stakes are higher than ever. It's a crime thriller written by "a bold new poet of American noir -- "this is the book Chandler would have written if he'd been a real-life private eye," says author Ellen McGarrahan. Purchase at https://amzn.to/3oHmzfl.

"The Prague Connection"
by Will Steadman

The collapse of the Soviet regime with perestroika meant big trouble for the KGB; rebellious groups of agents in the satellite countries have shaped a plan to resist Moscow's reforms. Portable, backpack-size nuclear weapons will be their key to success. The weapons are safely hidden until Lena, a beautiful Russian physicist working in the U.S., raises the alarm.

When Petrov, a nuclear weapons expert and son of a KGB agent, goes missing with the chemicals needed to arm the weapons, Putin and the West are in a state of panic. Brandt Swindon, a CIA operative, and his CIA-agent lover, Casey Stephens, are enlisted as part of a joint Russian/NATO team to find the weapons before disaster strikes. Purchase at https://amzn.to/3dRC8uS.

"The Paris Photo"
by Jane S. Gabin

A marvelous blend of mystery, historical fact and romance with great attention to detail, this novel is based upon the experiences of the author's father in Paris during the last part of WWII. Finding a previously unknown photo among her late father's papers, college professor Judith Gordon sets out to locate the boy in the group picture almost 70 years after it was taken.

The story is the tale of a young mother who courageously protects her child, Guy, by keeping him hidden during the war; but there is a long-lasting cost. Critics have called it "totally engaging," "fascinating," "beautiful" and "a phenomenal accomplishment." Purchase at https://amzn.to/3p66AaP.

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