Ross Thomas: The Brass Go-Between (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
To recover an African artifact, St. Ives will trade $250,000 -- or his life
Philip St. Ives is the kind of man who can convince a vice cop and a paroled mobster to sit down to a hand of poker. Once he was a reporter with a daily column, a fat Rolodex, and a reputation for indifference to criminal behavior. Now he is a go-between, a professional mediator between thieves and the people they rip off. For arranging the recovery of a stolen necklace, painting, or child, St. Ives takes ten percent of the ransom. His work takes him across the globe, but more importantly, it pays his alimony.

An African warrior's shield has come to Washington, where a gang of art-minded burglars pluck it from the museum. They demand $250,000 for the return of the priceless artifact, and request that St. Ives make the hand-off. But when he goes to deliver the cash, he finds himself playing a more deadly game than five-card draw.

Ross Thomas: The Brass Go-Between. A Philip St. Ives Mystery. Mysterious Press / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781453259672 (July, 2012), 2 MB (ca. 240 p.), $9.99 (?).

Ross Thomas writing as Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between (USA 1983)

From the Publisher:
Oliver Bleeck - the pseudonym for Ross Thomas, one of the world's outstanding suspense novelists - presents an exciting thriller series featuring Philip St. Ives, a professional go-between and troubleshooter with a taste for intrigue and fast living. In this story, St. Ives is assigned to recover a rare and politically important tenth-century African brass shield stolen from a Washington museum.

"The author has a sharp, polished style and his hero is full of dry wit, intelligence and savoir-faire. This is fiction with a flair, well above the norm for thrillers." - Associated Press
"A wild caper." - Library Journal
"The work of an accomplished writer... Highly recommended." - Publishers Weekly

Ross Thomas writing as Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between. New York: Harper & Row / Perennial Library, 1983, ISBN: 0060806451, 224 p., $2.95.

Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between (USA 1971)

From the Publisher:
I don't believe I've ever met a professional go-between before," said Frances Wingo, director of the Coulter Museum.
"Few people do until they need one," Philip St. Ives replied.

As a top professional go-between, St Ives was a man who mediated between the owner of stolen goods and the thieves who stole them. It was a job that carried with it more than its share of complications - like deceit, intrigue, and murder.

But St Ives' ex-wife was demanding a thousand dollars a month in alimony to keep their son in milk and cookies. So when a rare and politically important brass shield disappeared from a Washington D.C. museum, he couldn't afford to pass up a chance at the huge commission.

"THE BRASS GO-BETWEEN packs T.N.T. in both fists; don't underrate its author as a mere Fancy Dan. After some dazzling footwork in early rounds, feinting as well as jabbing with his left, Mr. Bleeck cuts loose with a haymaking right-cross that may dump you on the canvas, and a double-cross even after the bell." -- John Dickson Carr

Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between. A Bristling Novel of Crime and Suspenses. Pocket Books, SBN: 671-75647-8 (January, 1971), 75¢.

Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between (UK 1970)

From the Publisher:
Philip St. Ives is a top professional go-between who mediates between the owner of stolen goods and the thieves who stole them. In this exciting new novel, his assignment is to recover a rare and politically important tenth century brass shield stolen from a Washington, D.C. museum.

The shield is being ransomed for $250,000, and is being sought after not only by St. Ives, but by representatives of the African nation of Jandola, who desperately want it to sustain the Jandolans in their civil war with breakaway Komporeen.

Deceit, intrigue and murder complicate St. Ives' mission as the action moves between New York and Washington, eventually resulting in a breathless chase and climax that will delight the most demanding reader.

OLIVER BLEECK is a pseudonym of an established and award-winning American suspense novelist. The Brass Go-Between is the first of several novels that will be published under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck.

Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1970, SBN: 340 10562 3, 224 p., £1.95 (?).

Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between (USA 1969)

From the Publisher:
Philip St. Ives is a top professional go-between who mediates between the owner of stolen goods and the thieves who stole them. In this exciting new novel, his assignment is to recover a rare and politically important tenth century brass shield stolen from a Washington, D.C. museum.

The shield is being ransomed for $250,000, and is being sought after not only by St. Ives, but by representatives of the African nation of Jandola, who desperately want it to sustain the Jandolans in their civil war with breakaway Komporeen.

Deceit, intrigue and murder complicate St. Ives' mission as the action moves between New York and Washington, eventually resulting in a breathless chase and climax that will delight the most demanding reader.

OLIVER BLEECK is a pseudonym of an established and award-winning American suspense novelist. The Brass Go-Between is the first of several novels that will be published under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck.

Oliver Bleeck: The Brass Go-Between. A Novel of Suspense and Adventure. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1969, 224 p., $5.95.