ABOUT THE BOOK

One Mr Saffarian offers a substantial cash retainer to P.I. Jacob Asch to keep an eye on his beautiful daughter. What Asch doesn't realise is that the girl is part of a world class smuggling operation plotting to bring an ancient treasure into the U.S. Asch is quickly and mysteriously bounced from the case but one of his associates refuses to let things drop - and shortly drops out of sight himself.

Asch's search for his co-detective turns up a complex network of underground smuggling connections, leading from a small time fraud artist to the austere gates of the L.A. County Museum and on to the Bel Air doorstep of an art collecting billionaire. At stake is an assortment of golden artefacts of a pre-Hittite culture and the gleam leads Asch to an oil drilling platform beyond the 12 mile limit, a terrifying midnight rendezvous and last minute revelations of greed and mendacity.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'Asch is the very composite of the species, genus Californiensis' - New York Times Book Review

'The equal of Spade and Marlow...' - Publishers Weekly

'Jacob Asch is a saint with a gun all Chandlered up and ready to Hammett if necessary!' - London Guardian

'A taut suspenseful mystery by one of the finest writers in the genre' - Gerald Petievich

'..The best political study in detective fiction since Hammett's The Glass Key' - Steven Carter (On Arthur Lyons Hard Trade)

'..a first-rate private eye story, one of the best ever written' - Newsday