JON FASMAN

In this taut, atmospheric novel by the author of The New York Times bestseller The Geographeras Library, a young American finds himself adrift in Russia amid murderous bureaucrats, Central Asian mobsters, and a conspiracy to sell Soviet bioweapons to the highest bidder. Jim Vilatzer was going nowhereaworking in his parentsa restaurant, sleeping in his childhood bedroomauntil he ran up gambling debts that forced him to go somewhere far awayafast. He uses his Russian-language skills (learned from his A(c)migrA(c) grandparents) to cadge a job in Moscow finding and interviewing survivors of the Gulag. At first, he only finds that they are well hidden and leery of sharing their horrific stories, but he also discovers that heas falling in love with their homeland. He is intoxicated by Moscowas brooding, ironic atmosphere, its vast reservoir of entrepreneurial energy, its otherworldly churches and majestic subways. On any given day, petty indignities are more than offset by random acts of kindness.

Fasman, Jon A reporter stumbles into an ancient treasure hunt in this debut thriller, a historical puzzler in the vein of THE DA VINCI CODE and THE RULE OF FOUR. In 1154, a thief stole a collection of alchemical tools from the library of the geographer of the King of Sicily. The tools were subsequently scattered all over the globe, and as the centuries passed, various people attempted to reassemble the collection. Meanwhile in the present day, Paul Tomm, a young reporter for a small-town Connecticut newspaper, investigates the strange career and mysterious death of an elderly, reclusive professor, in preparation for writing the man's obituary. Gradually, Paul discovers connections between his story and the age-old search for the alchemical tools.

Un joven reportero de provincias se encarga de un triste suceso: la muerte de un antiguo profesor. Paul no sabe qué secretos se ha llevado este hombre a la tumba, muchos menos que se encuentra ante una investigacion que cambiara su vida personal y profesional. Un solido thriller que conduce al lector por los secretos del contrabando internacional y, de alli, a la busqueda de una serie de valiosos objetos robados a un cartografo del siglo XII.

Cub reporter Paul Tomm is working for a local newspaper in a sleepy Connecticut town when he's asked to write the obituary for an old Estonian history professor. This apparently routine assignment proves to be anything, but when Paul's investigation uncovers evidence suggesting not only that the professor was not exactly who he claimed to be, but also that his death might have involved a thousand-year-old mystery relating to fifteen arcane objects, once scattered across the globe and now missing. Clues and later threats begin to suggest that the truths Paul has always believed in might prove to be anything but certain. Yet the consequences of letting them go now could put his own life at terrible risk.