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May 10 - June 23, 2001 Marlborough Monaco

Retrospective artwork of Larry Turbes, 1993 to 2024.

The San Rameo Cross was an artifact of enormous religious significance ... and a not-so-small fortune in cold, hard cash. ...When he decided to investigate the murder of a fellow private eye, Larry Kent found himself caught up in a web of intrigue as greedy men and women vied to own the near-priceless relic.First to come forward was Emanuel Constatine, a fussy little man who hated violence and yet was prepared to kill to get what he wanted. Then there was Alice Gordon, a seductive woman for certain, but also one of many secrets. The same could be said for the scheming, sable-haired Marina Koch. But most deadly of them all was the skeletal Hendrick Fluger, a man described as the devil himself, and whose name was only ever spoken in terrified whispers!

It began when Larry Kent's old boss at the CIA asked him to come back for one more assignment - to a kill a double-agent who also happened to be one of his closest friends. Larry couldn't go through with it ... and it was just as well that he didn't, because nothing was as it appeared to be. An enemy of the United States had perfected a terrifying mind-manipulation drug - and after that, it became Larry's job to find out just who that enemy was. The trail took him first to Mexico City, then on to Australia, where he met up with an old love ... and an even older enemy, who wanted him dead! (Book 703)

It was a game of cat and mouse right from the start. Mallory Queen, a former State Department man who'd gone freelance, had a plan.He wanted to trade Willis Browning, a CIA-held double-agent, to the Russians in return for a spy named Vordak, who possessed a vast amount of information relating to Russia's space program.The CIA would never willingly release its prisoner, of course, but because Vordak was the bigger prize, Queen decided to snatch Browning away from them. So he enlisted private eye Larry Kent-a former CIA man himself-to mastermind the kidnap ...Even if it meant that Larry had to sell out some of his closest friends to do it.