To Steal A Sea

Russian oligarch Petr Damyanovitch had amassed his fortune through ruthlessness and charisma. His war record had been exemplary: as one of the most talented snipers in the Russian Army he had survived the blood-soaked killing fields of Stalingrad, and been present at the fall of Berlin. But after the collapse of the USSR his obsession became to restore his nation's place in the world, using the untamed destructiveness of the international bond markets to wreak havoc upon those he blames for its demise. Newfound allies on Wall Street and in a pragmatic White House would collaborate in his conspiracy, by supreme irony assisted by an Islamic fundamentalist with a vendetta against a modern secular world. Only three men stand in the way, with exceptional talents in law and finance but character flaws in equal measure. This would be a battle which would engulf many in its path, with the oil riches of a sea and the survival of nations as prizes. As panic floods the markets, a figure from the past emerges who holds the balance of power in his hands, seeking justice for a crime hidden from the world for a lifetime. The theme of closeness between friends, between lovers, and between father and daughter, pervades the book, as a terrifying conspiracy tears its way through the international oil markets. But it is the haunting of a war criminal, and the unfathomable self-guilt of a survivor, which drive relationships between forces which would clash across countries and continents in a remorseless quest for revenge and retribution, and an insatiable need for spiritual salvation.