Product Description

Hougan is half the team behind the best-selling thrillers by "John Case" Nicola Ward is a divorced schoolteacher living in Maine, when one day a mysterious trunk arrives, sent to her long ago from China. Inside are family papers, photographs . . . and a Russian diary. To translate the diary, Nicola hires Neil Walker, a burnt-out spy who turned to scholarly research after one too many missions went sour. Neil's past comes in handy, though, when Nicola starts receiving death threats clearly connected with the contents of the trunk. But what stirred up the hornets' nest? The diary, which appears to identify Nicola as the heir to the Romanov throne? Or could something else be pointing the way to a Soviet mole in the U.S. government?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205540 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Hougan ( Shooting in the Dark ) masterfully blends espionage, adventure, suspense, romance and history in this complex and engrossing page-turner. In 1941, as a baby, Nicola Ward was sent from Shanghai to the U.S. when her Russian mother and British father felt their life was threatened by their work in a Soviet spy ring. Nearly 40 years later, a school teacher and recent divorcee, she receives a trunk containing photos and documents, an icon and what could be a Faberge egg--sent to England by her maternal grandfather years earlier and left untouched in the attic of her father's family home. The auction house she consults assigns Neil Walker, a recently retired CIA operative, to check the provenance of the treasures. Slowly unraveled, the story of the prized objects illuminates the history of Nicola's family, at one point suggesting she is a Romanov heir but pointing also to the identity of a Soviet spy highly placed in the U.S. government. Attracted to each other, Neil, a widower, and Nicola begin a wary relationship. As he closes in on identification, Neil, with Nicola and their children--her anorectic daughter, his crippled son--are pursued at sea through a wild Atlantic storm and then up and down the East coast, as he desperately tries to arrange a solution that will guarantee their lives. Hougan is an utterly natural storyteller, breathing life into her characters--who include a vivid supporting cast--and letting them loose to live out their own enthralling tale. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A masterful blend of espionage, adventure, suspense, romance and history." --Publishers Weekly -- Publishers Weekly

"A masterful blend of espionage, adventure, suspense, romance and history." --Publishers Weekly --Publishers Weekly

"Hougan's enormous talent sets her novel apart." --San Francisco Sunday Examiner -- San Francisco Sunday Examiner

"Hougan's enormous talent sets her novel apart." --San Francisco Sunday Examiner --San Francisco Sunday Examiner

Customer Reviews

a 10 star special
WoW! I love good mysteries. Helen MacInnes has always been one of my favorites. Carolyn Hougan matches her in talent, plotting, and well crafted prose. My husband and I both found the characters wonderful, and the history instructional as well as entertaining. Since my husband is a history buff of both WWI and WWII, he especially enjoyed and learned from the plotting set in Shanghai.

history+espionage+interesting characters
I'll make this short, but I wanted to let everyone know that this is a great book. I couldn't put it down and I loved how the characters came to life. The espionage part doesn't weigh the book down and the history(Russia and Shangai) makes it all the more interesting.

One super-sexy spy thriller
I picked this book up because it is a spy thriller--a genre which I enjoy. It does not disappoint in that area (if you're not picky about the Cold War being over, and all...).

A lovely surprise is the heightening tension produced by how much the reader comes to care about what happens (or might happen) to these wonderful characters!

Before boy even meets girl, you want them to fall in love--as much for their problems as their perfections. They need each other.

A nicely complicated mystery, a terrifying chase for survival, and a really, really, REALLY sexy love story!