Complication
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Searching for his missing brother in Prague, an American encounters a world of killers, gangsters, and ancient mysteries in a “satisfyingly twisted tale” (Publishers Weekly).
When American collections agent Lee Holloway receives a letter from a mysterious woman named Vera concerning his missing brother Paul, curiosity takes him to Prague in search of answers. But what he finds in the historic city’s looming shadows and cobbled streets is a mind-bending world of conspiracy and danger. A world where black magic and sixteenth-century alchemy aren’t just footnotes in history books. A world where gangsters with fairy-tale names and a bloodthirsty serial killer exist alongside grim reminders of Nazi invasion. And where a priceless watch named The Rudolph Complication—commissioned by an eccentric Roman emperor—is rumored to hold the secret to eternal life.
As Lee delves deeper into the question of Paul’s fate, he discovers unsettling truths about his brother . . . and himself. Now Lee must unravel the tangled threads of Paul’s last days if he wants to escape the ancient city alive.
Echoing with ghosts and mythic monsters from Europe’s storied past, this is a heart-pumping thrill ride into the very heart of darkness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A mysterious missive propels Lee Holloway on a bizarre journey from Chicago to Prague in Adamson's atmospheric and satisfyingly twisted tale. Following his father's death, Lee finds a letter from a woman named Vera who doubts the circumstances of Lee's younger brother Paul's death five years earlier. She promises in writing to reveal the mystery at a Prague caf . On impulse, Lee flies to Prague and meets the shady Vera at a dark place called the Black Rabbit. Vera believes that Paul was murdered for helping steal a magical centuries-old watch known as the Rudolf Complication. Made by an alchemist, the watch ran both forwards and backwards and supposedly granted its wearer eternal life. Not long after, Lee is approached by a crusty ex-detective, Zdenek Soros, a man convinced that Paul's murder is connected to a notorious serial killer known as the Right Hand of God. Woven into Lee's attempts to discover the truth about his brother's death and life are interconnected stories that form the history of the Rudolf Complication itself, as much a character as any person in the book. The plot could easily have collapsed under the weight of its own complexity, but Adamson (Tokyo Suckerpunch) pulls it off with style and a whopper of a twist.
