The Aztec

By the author of The Clayton Account, a fiendishly plotted international thriller about missing Spanish gold.

1936. As General Franco's Nationalists march on Madrid in the early stages of the Spanish Civil War, the Republican government authorises the evacuation of the country's gold reserves. 7900 crates of gold leave Cartagena for Russia  - but only 7800 arrive. The hundred missing boxes, if found today, would be worth over $200 million.

2004. Jack Hadley, a British visiting professor at the University of Salamanca, his girlfriend Mercedes and the enigmatic civil servant Rosa Uribe have been arrested on drug charges in the wake of an evening's excessive partying. Hadley is facing prison, disgrace and possibly the end of his career, until the Spanish Secret Service offer him a surprising reprieve: Hadley is about to visit Cuba to interview the reclusive revolutionary Jesús Florin -- better known as the 'The Aztec'. The Spanish intelligence chief believes Florin knows the location of the missing gold and coerces Hadley into his service.

Switching between Florin's past and 2004, The Aztec is a gripping international thriller full of double agents and deception, where no-one seems to be sure who's pulling the strings or why.

BILL VIDAL was born in Argentina and educated in England. He lived and worked in the USA, South America, the Middle East, South East Asia and Europe before settling with his wife and twin children in East Kent. In recent years he has slowed down his business commitments to devote more time to writing and to his lifelong love for aeroplanes. He is the author of one previous novel The Clayton Account.