Wrapping up his latest assignment for the Magellan Billet, Luke Daniels receives a surprise visit from the head of a former-CIA operation named Sommerhaus — a failed attempt to assemble an espionage network within the Ukraine on the eve of the Russian invasion. Sommerhaus ranks high on Luke’s list of painful regrets for it was during this mission that his friend, CIA case officer John Vince, was captured by Russian operatives and supposedly executed. But Luke is provided some shocking news. Vince is alive, in failing health, locked behind the walls of Russia’s brutal Solovetsky Island prison, and has a critical message he’ll give to no one but Luke. Needing no further convincing Luke vows to bring Vince home.

However, just as he manages to extract his friend from prison Vince tragically dies and his final words are rambling and incoherent. Just bits and pieces. But enough to plunge Luke into a hunt for something lost since the 15th century. The legendary library of the first Tsar of All Russia, Ivan the Terrible.

Within that priceless collection of rare manuscripts is the key to unraveling a modern-day cipher and stopping a secret Soviet satellite program that still exists. But Luke is not the only one on the trail. Others, both inside and out of Russia, want the library for a totally different reason — to re-start the Red Star program and finally unleash its destructive potential. Luke’s mission is clear. Find the lost library, solve the puzzle, and prevent Red Star falling.

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Larceny & Last Chances

Sometimes, it’s about doing the right thing. Sometimes, it’s about getting even. Sometimes, it’s about taking what you think you deserve. And sometimes, it’s your last, best chance. Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk and featuring stories by Christina Boufis, John Bukowski, Brenda Chapman, Susan Daly, Wil A. Emerson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, Molly Wills Fraser, Gina X. Grant, Karen Grose, Wendy Harrison, Julie Hastrup, Larry M. Keeton, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Gregory Meece, Cate Moyle, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Kevin R. Tipple, and Robert Weibezahl.

Robert Weibezahl.

A playwright, novelist, occasional poet, and book critic.His play, And Lightning Struck: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Creation, was commissioned by Lit Live and presented at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center in California in 2017; his short play, “Mission,” debuted as part of the TENx10 Festival at the Bendigo Theatre Company in Australia in 2018; and he had full-length plays selected for staged readings in both 2018 (Which Way the Wind Blows) and 2019 (Hold On) as part of the Palisades Playwrights Festival in Los Angeles. Most recently, Which Way the Wind Blows was a finalist for the Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest 2019.

Weibezahl has published two novels, The Wicked and the Dead and The Dead Don’t Forget, and two non-fiction books, A Taste of Murder and A Second Helping of Murder (for which he is a two-time Agatha Award finalist and two-time Macavity Award finalist). His poems have appeared in LI Quarterly, The Caterpillar (Ireland), Tipton Poetry Journal, The Fifty-Two, Enjambed, and Brushfire, and his short stories in Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, CrimeSpree, Mouth Full of Bullets, Beat to a Pulp, and the anthology, Deadly by the Dozen. He was a finalist for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2010 Derringer Award for “Identity Theft.”

Since 2002, he has written the monthly review column “Well Read” for BookPage. His reviews and cultural reporting have appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Reader, Ventura County Star, Mystery Readers Journal, Bikini, Irish America, and many other national and regional publications.

Weibezahl was the Co-Founder and former Co-Producing Artistic Director of the Thousand Oaks, CA-based Panic! Productions, for which he produced, directed, and/or acted in more than a dozen shows and wrote the scripts for three musical revues, Too Old, Too White, Too Male; The Panic! Holiday Radio Hour; and Coming Distractions. He has also worked as a play reader and associate producer for the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles and various production capacities on feature films and television movies.

Robert Weibezahl lives in southern California and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

About – Robert Weibezahl (wordpress.com)

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/houseofmysteryradio.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Larceny & Last Chances

Sometimes, it’s about doing the right thing. Sometimes, it’s about getting even. Sometimes, it’s about taking what you think you deserve. And sometimes, it’s your last, best chance. Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk and featuring stories by Christina Boufis, John Bukowski, Brenda Chapman, Susan Daly, Wil A. Emerson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, Molly Wills Fraser, Gina X. Grant, Karen Grose, Wendy Harrison, Julie Hastrup, Larry M. Keeton, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Gregory Meece, Cate Moyle, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Kevin R. Tipple, and Robert Weibezahl.

Christina Boufis

Christina Boufis is a San Francisco Bay Area writer whose short fiction has appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Kings River Life Magazine, and the forthcoming anthology Larceny and Last Chances.

Under C.B. Peterson, she’s the author of a domestic thriller, I Want Him Dead. In nonfiction, she’s written The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Nonfiction, as well as dozens of essays and articles appearing in Salon.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Glamour, and other publications. A former academic with a PhD in Victorian literature and Women’s Studies, she spent eight years teaching women in the San Francisco County Jail.

Christina Boufis

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