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Two boys discover a forty year-old skeleton, and an old man trudges through a San Franciso Park to the Fior d'Italia Restaurant. Thus begins a story filled with love, intrigue and murder.
Helm Publishing
July 2007
On Sale: July 1, 2007
Featuring: Julia Rice; Thomas Andersen; Mark Hansen
300 pages
ISBN: 0979232880
EAN: 9780979232886
Paperback
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Mystery | Suspense
The Separatist is two parallel stories: one about Julia Rice, a newspaper reporter, and the other about Mr. Andersen, an eighty-year-old man who roars into her life like an aging lion. Forty years ago, Mr. Andersen was a separatist, a man hired by clients to sever relationships between spouses, business partners, or lovers without unwanted publicity or legal confrontations. But he had to flee the country to escape the clutches of a Chinese warlord, Liu Kwong. Now, he has returned, and he asks Julia to tell his story so he can bring Kwong to justice and closure to his life. Julia hesitates, but finally agrees when the old man offers to help her find her father, for whom she has searched since he abandoned her as a small child. Julia learns that Mr. Andersen was hired forty years ago by Kwong to sever relationships with a woman, Kathy Griffith, who he claimed was his mistress. Andersen discovers Kwongβs real motivation for wanting βto get rid ofβ Kathy is to prevent her from exposing his illegal smuggling operations, and if he is not successful, Kwong will have her murdered. In the process of investigating Kathy, Andersen falls in love with her, creating an agonizing dilemma. If he does not ruin Kathyβs reputation, Kwong will have her murdered, but if he fulfills the contract, he will destroy her trust in him and lose her anyway. Like Andersen, Julia is trapped by her own past. She knows her father roams the country promoting fraudulent land schemes, but despite his unsavory character, she hopes to fine him someday. But as Julia navigates the twists and turns of the separatistβs dangerous world, she makes startling discoveries that shake her confidence and nearly cost her her life. She has no choice, however, but to continue down the path laid out for her by Mr. Andersen, for she knows it is the only way to bring peace to her life.
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