The Map Thief

Zusatztext “Provocative! well-documented! and evocative.”—Javier Sierra! author of The Secret Supper “Heather Terrell’s new thriller moves effortlessly through time as she maps out a suspenseful novel that’s as smart and well written as it is inventive! original! and surprising. The Map Thief cements Terrell’s position as one of the genre’s up-and-coming stars and positions this series as one to watch and wait for . . . with bated breath.”—M. J. Rose! author of The Reincarnationist Informationen zum Autor Heather Terrell is also the author o f The Chrysalis and The Book of Kildare . A lawyer with more than ten years’ experience as a litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies, Terrell is a graduate of Boston College and of the Boston University School of Law. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family. Klappentext Republican kingmaker Richard Tobias has hired attorney Mara Coyne! he says! because of her skill in recovering stolen art! but Mara senses that he is not telling her everything. Tobias reveals that a centuries-old map was stolen from an archaeological dig he is sponsoring in China! and he wants her to get it back. But as Mara begins her investigation! she uncovers the shocking truth: The map is more valuable than anyone has even imagined! and her client's motives are more sinister than she suspected. From Hong Kong to the Italian countryside! from Lisbon to the remote reaches of Communist China! and literally around the world on the ships of fifteenth-century explorers! Heather Terrell takes readers on an adventure of epic proportions. Summer 1424 The Mongolian Steppes, China The Mongolian steppes thunder as three hundred thousand horses charge across the plains. The ground vibrates from the unison marching of the nearly one million foot soldiers that follow in the cavalry’s wake. The arid soil of the steppes cracks under the army’s weight, and opens into countless new chasms. Without warning, the air grows silent, and the multitudes part. A towering ?gure on horseback cloaked in vibrant yellow gallops to the front of the ranks. It is Emperor Yongle, His Imperial Majesty of China, heir to the Dragon Throne and the Son of Heaven. The emperor knows that he should not ride unprotected across the steppes. He knows that he should ride shielded from sight, as mere mortals are forbidden to look upon the Son of Heaven. But he loves the ?ght, and he understands this battle against the rebel Mongol leader may be his last. Yet the emperor cannot help but believe that the gods will favor him with one more victory, as they have done so often in the past. And he must triumph against the insurgent Mongol forces outside on the battle?eld in order to triumph against his political adversaries, the mandarins, inside his own kingdom. For the mandarins have been whispering that the rebellion is a sign that the gods have forsaken the emperor and his grand plans. The emperor must vanquish the rebels and prove the mandarins wrong before his pliable son and chosen successor, Zhu Gaozhi, starts listening to their whispers and abandons the emperor’s projects when he ascends the DragonThrone. The aging emperor cannot allow this to happen. He must protect his beloved monuments, the Forbidden City and Great Wall among them, which declare China’s might to the world. He must keep intact the vast empire of tribute and trade he so carefully reconstructed after centuries of neglect. Most of all, he must safeguard his beloved navy, the largest and most advanced the world has ever known, and its plans for far-reaching voyages. The gods know that he has only ever wanted to make his people have faith in their own rule after so many years of foreign Mongol domination. He must make the Mongol rebels kowtow to him, so that his glorious legacy will not be lost to the mandarins’ self-serving schemings when Zhu Gaoz...

Product details

• Authors: Heather Terrell
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 28.04.2009
• EAN: 9780345494696
• ISBN: 978-0-345-49469-6
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 175 mm x 21 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense > Crime fiction, thrillers, espionage