THE DOUBLE EAGLE is book that, frankly, surprised me. James
Twining has managed to craft a very entertaining book that
balances Bond-esque adventure with several well developed
characters. While the first 10% of the book seems to wander
a bit as the author finds his way, the remaining 90% is a
well crafted story that keeps the reader entertained and
engaged.
THE DOUBLE EAGLE takes us on the hunt for fantastically rare
gold $20 coins, survivors of FDR's effort to take the United
States off of the gold standard and rescue the country
from the Great Depression. Originally stored at Fort Knox,
the coins have disappeared with the only clue as to their
whereabouts a dead de-frocked priest in Amsterdam. The
unlikely team sent to track them down is Tom Kirk, an ex-CIA
agent turned jewel thief, and Jennifer Browne, an FBI agent
seeking redemption for killing her partner in a case of
mistaken identity. The tension between them is well
balanced and does not distract from the story. The two form
a likeable pair, the reader cheering them along in pursuit
of the prize.
From Kentucky to Istanbul, the story is a wild ride that
takes several unexpected turns. The author manages to keep
the story satisfyingly complex without crossing over into
the absurd or bogging down into overly confusing story
layers. While the story lacks a bright central star, it
compensates with a constellation of good guys that flesh out
the cast nicely. The bad guys are a bit more comic book
than the heroes -- more like Indiana Jones Nazis than fully
developed characters, but we can feel comfortable disliking
them and satisfied with their eventual demise.
If you like James Bond style, Dirk Pitt adventures and
Hercule Poirot mysteries, you'll enjoy THE DOUBLE EAGLE.
The story flows quickly, has plenty of twists and turns, and
wraps up with a fulfilling conclusion.
In Paris, a priest is murdered, his mutilated body dumped
into the Seine. He has taken a secret with him to his death
-- a secret that is revealed during the autopsy, reawakening
memories of Depression-era politics and a seventy-year-old
heist.
Jennifer Browne, an ambitious FBI agent, is assigned to the
case. For her, this is a final opportunity to kick-start a
career that stalled three years ago, after a fatal error in
judgment. She is determined that this time there will be no
mistakes.
Her investigation soon comes across a daring robbery at Fort
Knox. The immediate suspect is Tom Kirk, a brilliant young
art thief and a man whose very existence threatens to bring
down the newly elected president.
Caught between his desire to get out of the game and his
partner's insistence that he complete one last job for the
criminal mastermind Cassius, Tom faces a race against time
to clear his name -- a race that takes him from London to
Paris, and Amsterdam to Istanbul, in a search for the real
thieves and the legendary Double Eagle.
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