The Double Eagle by James Twining
August 22nd 2006 03:21
In 1933, in the middle of Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order which removed the gold standard. Hundreds of freshly minted 1933 twenty dollar coins called double eagles were then melted down. Officially, 1933 double eagles were not supposed to exist. But ten survived. James Twining’s new thriller The Double Eagle uses this fact as its plot-theme.
The novel begins with a murder of Paris priest whose body is dumped in the side-by river. Nothing remarkable about the murder except that during autopsy the victim’s stomach yields the rarest of rare coins, the 1933 Double Eagle.
FBI springs into action and the case is handled by Agent Jennifer Browne, an attractive young woman who is struggling to overcome a past judgement error which proved fatal to her career. Her investigation leads to Fort Knox where the ten Double Eagles which escaped melting are stored only to find that all the ten coins are missing. The early suspect is one Tom Kirk, a renegade CIA agent who is now an art thief.
Tom Kirk is introduced to us stealing a Fabourge egg in a nice action set piece. Tom has tired of his stealing ways and wants this to be his last assignment. But his boss, Archie is bound to a shadowy figure named Cassius and will not let him go easily. Cassius could be Van Simmons, a cruel Dutch entrepreneur who is also after the Double Eagles. Or someone else.
Twining doesn’t waste time and moves from one action scene to another with effortless ease pulling us along the way. The wire stunts, and the novel is packed with them, should be mouth-watering to action buffs. The characters are nicely etched and the novel is punctured with delightful humour too. All in all, it makes for a great reading.
James Twining’s next Tom Kirk novel,
is out and will be featured here in future.
The novel begins with a murder of Paris priest whose body is dumped in the side-by river. Nothing remarkable about the murder except that during autopsy the victim’s stomach yields the rarest of rare coins, the 1933 Double Eagle.
Tom Kirk is introduced to us stealing a Fabourge egg in a nice action set piece. Tom has tired of his stealing ways and wants this to be his last assignment. But his boss, Archie is bound to a shadowy figure named Cassius and will not let him go easily. Cassius could be Van Simmons, a cruel Dutch entrepreneur who is also after the Double Eagles. Or someone else.
Twining doesn’t waste time and moves from one action scene to another with effortless ease pulling us along the way. The wire stunts, and the novel is packed with them, should be mouth-watering to action buffs. The characters are nicely etched and the novel is punctured with delightful humour too. All in all, it makes for a great reading.
James Twining’s next Tom Kirk novel,
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