Noble Chase: A Novel

by Michael Rudolph

Overview

Perfect for fans of John Grisham, Greg Iles, and Linda Fairstein—this action-packed legal thriller debut races from the gleaming canyons of New York City to the hurricane-lashed waters of the Caribbean. Michael Rudolph’s Noble Chase combines a smart, determined heroine and a storm of stunning surprises in a pulse-pounding morality tale of international intrigue that delivers suspense right up to the shocking end.
 
Sic transit gloria. Beth Swahn, a young lawyer, makes a rookie mistake: She believes her client. While basking in the glory of winning a hundred-million-dollar judgment for a U.S. division of C. K. Leung’s Chinese conglomerate, Beth realizes that because of her naïveté, Leonard Sloane, president of the division, has absconded to the Caribbean with his banker girlfriend and seventy million dollars of the judgment money. Shortly thereafter, they are both presumed dead when a Mayday call to the Coast Guard reports the sinking of their yacht.
 
Stunned, furious, and determined to retrieve Leung’s money and save her firm from bankruptcy, Beth investigates her way through a maze of money laundering and white-collar corruption. When the trail leads her to Sloane’s handsome son, she is torn between her attraction to him and her fear that he may be involved in the theft. Beth is not alone in her search for the money. C. K. Leung is also involved, because he doubts Beth’s innocence. When her investigation moves to a critical level and a missing encrypted file comes to light that has the power to ignite a geopolitical firestorm, Leung becomes convinced that Beth is a party to Sloane’s scheme, and her life becomes violently threatened.

Michael Rudolph’s gripping legal thrillers featuring Beth Swahn can be enjoyed together or separately:
NOBLE CHASE • ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Praise for Noble Chase
 
“Noble Chase is exactly that: heart-stabbing adventures at sea and in the courtroom, with lives—and millions—at stake. Get ready to stay up late.”—Brad Meltzer
 
“From the inner chambers of Manhattan’s legal scene to the jet-setting world of international business, this gripping thriller takes you to exotic places while keeping you on the edge of your seat. Noble Chase is a debut you must read!”—Kathy Reichs

“Not only is Rudolph’s novel a decidedly entertaining legal thriller, but there’s also an exciting chase on the high seas. Illegal financial practices form the basis for a ruthless tale that will captivate and challenge readers to discover the guilty. . . . It’s fun to follow the breadcrumbs.”—RT Book Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101884379
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Michael Rudolph is a retired Park Avenue attorney, an ex–New Yorker, and an ex–Connecticut Dodger. His idea of nirvana is to sail off into a Caribbean sunset with his wife, Elizabeth, their golden retriever, and a handful of grandchildren. He sailed his own sailboat on Long Island Sound for many years and chartered other sailboats for extended cruising in the Caribbean. He polished his sailing techniques and blue-water skills with many classes in navigation and seamanship. Noble Chase is his first novel.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Noble Chase"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Michael Rudolph.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

02/15/2016
Rudolph, a retired Park Avenue attorney and accomplished sailor, makes his fiction debut with this fast-paced, if uneven, legal thriller. After winning a $105 million judgment for a company owned by a Taiwan-based conglomerate, 27-year-old attorney Elisabeth Swahn, an associate at the Manhattan law firm of Wilcox, Swahn and Giles, realizes that her client, Leonard Sloane, has stolen $70 million before apparently dying in a yachting accident near Puerto Rico. When Beth’s stepfather, a retired senior partner at her firm who’s now living on a sailboat in the Caribbean with her mother, uncovers clues that may point to a conspiracy involving Sloane’s death, Beth embarks on a dangerous journey with her parents to track him down and save her career. The dynamic between Beth and her stepfather is an undeniable strength as is the authenticity of the legal and nautical backdrop, but a cardboard villain coupled with an anticlimactic ending will disappoint some readers. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Endeavor. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Noble Chase is exactly that: heart-stabbing adventures at sea and in the courtroom, with lives—and millions—at stake. Get ready to stay up late.”—Brad Meltzer
 
“From the inner chambers of Manhattan’s legal scene to the jet-setting world of international business, this gripping thriller takes you to exotic places while keeping you on the edge of your seat. Noble Chase is a debut you must read!”—Kathy Reichs

“Not only is [Michael] Rudolph’s novel a decidedly entertaining legal thriller, but there’s also an exciting chase on the high seas. Illegal financial practices form the basis for a ruthless tale that will captivate and challenge readers to discover the guilty. . . . It’s fun to follow the breadcrumbs.”—RT Book Reviews

“A fast-moving legal thriller that’s resolved on the high seas instead of in a courtroom. . . . A dandy debut novel featuring lawyers with both integrity and nautical skills.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“International money laundering, corruption, violence, and a horrific tropical storm all combine to make this a breathless race to the finish line—and the cash. The John Grisham and Scott Turow crowd will be satisfied.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 2016-02-04
A fast-moving legal thriller that's resolved on the high seas instead of in a courtroom. Near Puerto Rico, the sloop Satin Lady calls in a mayday. The Coast Guard finds its wreck but no survivors. Len Sloane and Erica Crossland had been onboard and are presumed dead. Meanwhile, Beth Swahn, an intensely competitive young attorney working in her retired stepfather's law firm, has dinner with Chun Keun "C.K." Leung, a wealthy Taiwanese client, to celebrate winning a big case. But she realizes that C.K. thinks his firm won only $35 million and isn't aware that they also received $70 million in punitive damages. As obligated, she sets him straight. At first, C.K. brushes it off as a likely bookkeeping error. Beth suspects that Sloane, C.K.'s deceased business associate, did not properly transfer the money but had ripped him off instead. She tells her boss she might be left "holding the bag" for a possible malpractice suit. Indeed, C.K. gives Beth's firm two months to recover the missing money or be sued. Beth doesn't trust her client at all: "Secrecy and surprise were his modus operandi," and "truth was irrelevant." Conducting her own investigation, she begins to think Sloane may still be alive. She meets Sloane's estranged son, Bob Talcourt, who seems like a decent man. The story is fun from the start, yet there's no real action until an 18-wheeler runs Beth and her companions off the road nearly halfway into the book. Then she fights off muggers, and Talcourt's apartment is trashed. The case races to an out-of-court settlement as Beth, her mother, and stepfather sail their boat, Red Sky, across the Caribbean to catch the sloop Atrophy on its attempted escape to Panama. Stormy weather and entertaining sailing scenes follow in their wake. A dandy debut novel featuring lawyers with both integrity and nautical skills.

Kirkus Reviews

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