10/02/2023
White’s ambitious, fast-paced treasure-hunt thriller connects historical fact, violent villains, a mystical beast, and a good-old fashioned treasure hunt. Disgraced Navy honor guard Lieutenant Carter Porter is drunk when Russian mercenaries break into the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel that houses the tomb of Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones. Carter thinks the break-in is linked to the tattered journal his recently deceased father left him, an heirloom that once belonged to General Horace Porter, a distant ancestor, who delivered Jones’ body from its original resting place in Paris to America. When Carter receives a mysterious letter containing a plane ticket to Scotland and a request to bring the journal, he figures he has nothing left to lose and makes the trip. At the Bonnie Ness Inn, he bumps into 15-year-old motel clerk Hassie Douglass, who is being hounded by the press because she found four gold coins suspected of being from the fabled lost treasure of Loch Arkaig.
Polished, propulsive, and boasting intrigue at every turn, the story reads like a blockbuster cinematic adventure. Hassie and Carter are soon joined by Royce MacArthur, deputy of the Right for Scotland independence movement, who suspects the treasure, given by Spain to fund the Stuart clan’s supplantment of the British monarchy in Scotland, was moved in 1753 and given to John Paul Jones’ father. With Hassie’s knowledge of where she found the coins, Carter’s journal with cryptic clues to finding the elusive treasure, and Royce’s historical information, the trio must find the treasure before the deadly mercenaries chasing them do.
White propels the story through kidnappings, murder, cars being run off the road, the David’s Tower ruins of Edinburgh Castle, the golden relic of an Incan god, and a meeting with Nessie (a name that the creature hates, incidentally). The historical facts blend intuitively with iconic fantasy and amiable characters for a suspenseful adventure worthy of Harrison Ford or Nicolas Cage.
Takeaway: Action-packed treasure hunt with peril and warmth worthy of blockbusters.
Comparable Titles: Preston & Child, Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Lies.
Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A