The St. Regis Affair

Life, at times, can get on top of the best of us, and it's important to have a strategy to hit back and laugh things off. My strategy was Tom Giles in The St. Regis Affair. It started off as a welcome distraction, but turned out to be hugely enjoyable departure in style. 

Tom lives a carefree life, travelling when and where he chooses after he and his brother sold the company they founded. His brother was the mastermind behind their software product and Tom was the salesman, ensuring he golfed and drank with all the right people to win the defense contracts they needed. This first short story tells of his stay at the St. Regis Hotel in Orange County, California where he becomes entangled in the theft of the valuable Josephine Necklace and the attempts to recover it before a scandal erupts.

As he finds himself mixed up in the problem he meets James, newly hired to be Tom's driver. James is a calm, sage sort of chap who, if pressed on the matter, may be able to offer an opinion or two on the finer points of professional jewelry theft. Tom must work through a monstrous hangover and a rogues gallery that include a glamorous magazine owner, a Russian oligarch, an aspiring entrepreneur, a collector of small dogs and a painter with a highly memorable technique.

The St. Regis Affair, available wherever good Kindle books are sold. Which is, of course, Amazon.