A Present For Santa
Code Name: Santa
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
Patrick Morley is a smart guy. Too smart to be spending the prime of his life in semi-retirement on the Florida coast after the death of his young wife. So when Morley meets Dan Casper - or Dante Cappuccino, as he’s known to the Mafia - he welcomes the opportunity to use his undercover skills, as a bagman in highly sensitive deliveries and pickups.
The Mafia has plans of its own, which begin with the elimination of Casper, and inadvertently give Morley his chance to snatch a couple of million dollars in cash. Morley figures he’s got a good chance of escaping since the Mafia knows only his code name - “Santa.” But Dennis Conners, one of the rising starts of the “new” Mafia, uses his sophistication and smarts to narrow the possibilities down to Morley.
An intricate series of dodges follows. Conners uses a beautiful young woman posing as a guileless vacationer to reveal Morley’s identity and plan of escape. But he fails to anticipate that the girl will fall in love with Morley.
Trained to recognize deception, Morley struggles to keep his head as he falls deeply in love. Barely keeping a step ahead of his assassins, he hops from Florida to London, Switzerland to Hong Kong, and finally, to the explosive denouement on a private Tahitian island.
Customer Reviews
A pinch of Elmore Leonard and a dash of Robert Ludlum with a real life spy writing it all
The story begins in South Florida. Written by James Burke, an experienced government agent for the CIA and FBI, Mr. Burke brings to life his experiences in “A Present For Santa”.
Pat Morley, the main character, sits in limbo after the death of his wife, spending his early retirement in South Florida.
He befriends Dan, an elderly man from up north, who is connected with the mob or syndicate, as they like to be called. As their friendship binds so does Dan’s trust. Morley takes on the roll of bagman for Dan. When Dan provides an opportunity for Morley to make a VIP pick up Morley is back to using his special operations training.
The story takes shape when Dan is gunned down while in Chicago on a routine trip. Morley, after Dan getting gunned down, picks up the VIP package and holds on to it. The package contains 2.2 million of the Mafia's money. With Morley knowing that only Dan knew about him he takes the money and leads the Mafia, with them only knowing his code name Santa, on a chase around the world to find him.
The story has some interesting character’s that reminded me of “Get Shorty” from Elmore Leonard’s book.
The book is fast paced and entertaining. It was hard to put down and I was done pretty quickly. A very engaging read!