Valentina is a drop-dead gorgeous gal with an off-the-chart IQ, street smarts, and beyond impressive martial arts skills. Summoned from New York to Hong Kong (at least that's what her bosses think), she winds up in the middle of desperate attempts to save the secretly imploding financial empire of the man who drove her father to suicide and her family to ruin. She's after a megalomaniacal financier who surrounds himself with bodacious bodyguards, employs a security officer who's also a sadistic killer, and seems to keep everyone in line with phenomenal salaries and prodigious perks. Unfortunately, the wily business titan begins to play fast and loose with the Chinese Triad, and bodies start to fall faster than 1929 stock prices.

Readers are in for a wild ride between the pages of this suspense-filled novel of financial double-dealing, treachery for both selfishness and survival, mayhem from car crashes to bomb blasts to hand-to-hand combat, and methods of murder as chilling as they come. This contemporary thriller spins an involving plot while casting it with memorable characters. Author Defil is adept at making stock manipulation, bribery, market influencing, and pump and dump scams easy to understand. He also does an excellent job of blending financial finagling with threats, torture, and terrific kung fu. Action, suspense, deceit, and betrayal are served in a sort of dim sum blend that keeps readers flipping pages furiously. Credibility, often key to international intrigue yarns, is achieved throughout, as is insightful information about Hong Kong. Readers who like smart, well-written thrillers that feel both exciting and authentic should give this one a look.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

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