Ridley Pearson: The Red Room (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
Security operative John Knox and former Chinese Army spy Grace Chu have accepted a simple job in Istanbul: initiate the sale of a piece of ancient art worth millions to an anonymous client. But in Istanbul they find themselves in a melting pot of government agents and terrorists, where East meets West. Now Knox and Chu realize they are players in a bigger, more dangerous game than they ever imagined. Their client is himself a pawn in Iran's nuclear program.

As they move closer to the truth, they understand better their own vulnerability. They are not alone in wanting contact with this client. Forced to test the loyalty of the very people who hired them, aware their next move could trigger a power shift in the Middle East, the two arrange a meeting that threatens to kill all involved.

Ridley Pearson: The Red Room. A Risk Agent Novel. Jove, ISBN: 9780515155327 (May, 2015), 463 p., $9.99.

Ridley Pearson: The Red Room (USA 2014)

From the Publisher:
What's it like to see yourself in a photograph you never knew was taken?
Entrepreneur John Knox is a former government contractor trained in kidnapping extraction, surveillance, and delicate negotiations. No stranger to international dealings, Knox is understandably thrown when David "Sarge" Dulwich, his sometime employer at the private security firm Rutherford Risk, hands him a recent photo of himself engaged in a possibly illegal gray-market art sale. More curious to Knox, this revelation occurs inside Rutherford's Red Room, a highly secure underground situation room. Why the cloak-and-dagger, Knox wonders.

Dulwich is smart: he uses the photo to pressure Knox into brokering the sale of an ancient relic, all to gain five minutes with the buyer. With Grace Chu, the brilliant numbers woman and computer geek, Knox goes on to navigate a murky operation in Istanbul, a mysterious city located on two continents, where East meets West and Islam meets Christianity.

As a variety of government agents surface, and Grace goes missing, Knox is forced to weigh country against friendship, loyalties against realities, and risk against reward.

Tempted by an alluring woman, challenged by more questions than answers, an isolated Knox must make decisions that could cost the lives of those he holds most dear.

Ridley Pearson: The Red Room. A Risk Agent Novel. Putnam's, ISBN: 9780399163746 (June, 2014), 399 p., $26.95.