Treasures of the Fourth Reich - Softcover

Parker, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1495466612 ISBN 13: 9781495466618

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Synopsis

A Titian, a Bruegel, and a panel from the Amber Room -- vanished during WWII -- come to life again.

A string of deaths drags Dix Connor and his art expert wife into a suspense-filled game of cat & mouse with a clandestine organization dating back to WWII.

It was one of the greatest crimes of the century.... Grand museums and families lost countless valuables and works of art to Nazi lootings in what has been called "the rape of Europa." Parker's story begins just outside the Bavarian salt mines as the American and Russian armies are closing in. Amid the chaos, SS officers scramble to hide ill-gotten treasures that will finance the "Fourth Reich." Only a precious journal detailing an inventory of treasure caches around the Tirol holds a clue.

Forty plus years later, the hunt for Europe's lost art falls to a husband and wife team who become entangled in this web of stolen treasures. Dix and Maria Connor face down a secret and deadly network trafficking in Titians, Bruegels and remnants of Peter the Great's magnificent Amber Room. From northeast Italy to Brussels, these amateur detectives risk everything to right the wrongs of history. Crisscross Europe's past and present in this thinking man's action novel.

The lust for loot crosses paths with history's ghosts in this high-octane thriller.

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About this title

From the Author

Thank you for visiting. My goal is to entertain you. I want you to be thrilled and on the edge of your seat all the time, wondering what is going to happen next. On my website, you will find more information about me, awards, reviews of my books, and information on my upcoming book. Be sure to visit my blog as well.

My website is: bit.ly/1ZEoYGu and my blog is: bit.ly/1tTUjjv

My new book, Six Minutes Early, is another fast-paced, suspense-filled book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I hope you enjoy it.

My writers group keeps telling me they'll miss me when I'm carted away and placed in the witness protection program. I certainly hope they are wrong and I don't disappear....

From the Inside Flap

The story begins in September 1944 in the Alps where SS Major Fabian is planning to abscond with a large portion of loot the Nazis planned to use to fund the Fourth Reich. As the officer in charge of security for the mine in which some of the art works are stored, he has an excellent opportunity for some sleight-of-hand that will keep him in riches for decades. The art disappears, a body is found and identified as Fabian's, and no one is the wiser.

In 1993 Maria Connor, an art expert from Panama and her husband, retired Lieutenant Colonel Dix Connor, are quietly pursuing their careers in Italy when Maria becomes fascinated with the tales of lost Nazi plunder. Maria stumbles across several valuable art pieces she believes were lost during the war. She begins a clandestine and unofficial investigation when she is shown a panel from the Amber Room which was originally in the Summer Palace of Peter the Great and stolen by the Germans when they invaded Russia during the war.

Maria's sleuthing leads to Fabian's journal which documents everything he stole from the Nazis--a staggering fortune of art treasures--and the locations spread around the Tirol. During her investigation, Maria gets kidnapped in order to protect the stolen art from discovery. Dix then enlists the help of friends with military intelligence connections to help find Maria. They learn that OSS Officer Robert Hamilton, responsible for the official repatriation and restitution of the Nazi loot stored away in the Bavarian salt mines, took advantage of his unique situation and formed a secret organization with a German farmer. Pegasus, as their organization was called, possessed the only record of Fabians' fortune.

Dix and his friend exchange Maria for the journal, then flee for their lives. Along the way they learn that certain secret files from the end of the war, thought destroyed, were going to be turned over to the G-7 during a meeting in Munich. These files would expose Pegasus and Hamilton as the leader. During the meeting, Pegasus planned to assassinate the Russian President and destroy the files. Pegasus kills those that get in the way or are no longer of use to the organization. Dix and Maria became an obstacle to Pegasus and had to be eliminated.

Armed with the only evidence against Hamilton, narrowly escaping his last trap, they race against the clock to the Munich meeting of the G-7 to stop an assassination, avoid arrest by the authorities, death by Pegasus and bring down the deadly organization trafficking in stolen treasures.

Click on the Treasures of the Fourth Reich book cover above for a Look Inside. 

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1495466612
• ISBN 13: 9781495466618
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 293