Noble Chase: A Novel - Hardcover

Rudolph, Michael

 
9781101884379: Noble Chase: A Novel
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1101884371 ISBN 13: 9781101884379
Verlag: Ballantine Books, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Perfect for fans of John Grisham, Greg Iles, and Linda Fairstein—this action-packed legal thriller debut races from the gleaming canyons of New York City to the hurricane-lashed waters of the Caribbean. Michael Rudolph’s Noble Chase combines a smart, determined heroine and a storm of stunning surprises in a pulse-pounding morality tale of international intrigue that delivers suspense right up to the shocking end.
 
Sic transit gloria. Beth Swahn, a young lawyer, makes a rookie mistake: She believes her client. While basking in the glory of winning a hundred-million-dollar judgment for a U.S. division of C. K. Leung’s Chinese conglomerate, Beth realizes that because of her naïveté, Leonard Sloane, president of the division, has absconded to the Caribbean with his banker girlfriend and seventy million dollars of the judgment money. Shortly thereafter, they are both presumed dead when a Mayday call to the Coast Guard reports the sinking of their yacht.
 
Stunned, furious, and determined to retrieve Leung’s money and save her firm from bankruptcy, Beth investigates her way through a maze of money laundering and white-collar corruption. When the trail leads her to Sloane’s handsome son, she is torn between her attraction to him and her fear that he may be involved in the theft. Beth is not alone in her search for the money. C. K. Leung is also involved, because he doubts Beth’s innocence. When her investigation moves to a critical level and a missing encrypted file comes to light that has the power to ignite a geopolitical firestorm, Leung becomes convinced that Beth is a party to Sloane’s scheme, and her life becomes violently threatened.

Michael Rudolph’s gripping legal thrillers featuring Beth Swahn can be enjoyed together or separately:
NOBLE CHASE • ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Praise for Noble Chase
 
“Noble Chase is exactly that: heart-stabbing adventures at sea and in the courtroom, with lives—and millions—at stake. Get ready to stay up late.”—Brad Meltzer
 
“From the inner chambers of Manhattan’s legal scene to the jet-setting world of international business, this gripping thriller takes you to exotic places while keeping you on the edge of your seat. Noble Chase is a debut you must read!”—Kathy Reichs

“Not only is Rudolph’s novel a decidedly entertaining legal thriller, but there’s also an exciting chase on the high seas. Illegal financial practices form the basis for a ruthless tale that will captivate and challenge readers to discover the guilty. . . . It’s fun to follow the breadcrumbs.”—RT Book Reviews

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Michael Rudolph is a retired Park Avenue attorney, an ex–New Yorker, and an ex–Connecticut Dodger. His idea of nirvana is to sail off into a Caribbean sunset with his wife, Elizabeth, their golden retriever, and a handful of grandchildren. He sailed his own sailboat on Long Island Sound for many years and chartered other sailboats for extended cruising in the Caribbean. He polished his sailing techniques and blue-water skills with many classes in navigation and seamanship. Noble Chase is his first novel.

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Chapter One

The couple walked toward their table, following the circuitous path taken by the maître d’. The dinner crowd at Le Bernardin was its typical group of affluent regulars, yet their cumulative attention was drawn magnetically to the newcomers. Beth looked straight ahead, enjoying the attention. She couldn’t tell if C.K. noticed the stares, but if he did, he ignored them.

Beth accentuated her height with a strong athletic stride equally comfortable in a courtroom or on the playing fields of Central Park. On a shelf back in her office, she prominently displayed a coveted Golden Glove Award won in the Metropolitan Lawyers Softball League.

She had inherited blond hair and pale blue eyes from her northern Italian father, intellect and persistence from her Hungarian mother. Her taupe woolen suit was a conservative statement she reserved for clients.

Chun Keun Leung was Taiwan Chinese and wealthy. He was only slightly taller than Beth and had straight black hair with a touch of gray at the temples. He wore a navy chalk-stripe suit and walked with the confidence of one in authority. He was accustomed to being the center of attention.

Some of the diners glanced skeptically at their own dinner dates and knew with prurient certainty what the attractive woman was doing to satisfy the Asian gentleman. It was all malicious conjecture, of course. The truth was less satisfying than their imagination. The couple was there on business. An attorney out with her client. In fact, they had just met.

The maître d’ presented them with the evening’s elaborate menu before leaving their table. Their first real conversation of the evening was a discussion of what to order. Beth smiled and nodded to mask her difficulty in understanding her client’s accented English.

Minutes later, the waiter approached the table, took their orders, and left. He was followed shortly by the wine steward, who listened to Leung’s order and then complimented him on his expert selection. Leung ignored the compliment.

To Beth, everything about the meal was the embodiment of the image she had of life as a lawyer: Supreme Court victories and dinners in four-star restaurants to celebrate them. The perks of winning a $105 million judgment were infinitely better than the exhaustion of losing one. Losers invent excuses. Winners get bonuses. Her initial reluctance to meet Leung for the first time at a dinner instead of in her office disappeared with the weight of his praise and a glass of Taittinger Comtes.

After the flurry of waiters descended and left, C.K. raised his glass for a toast. “A fine champagne is the only drink appropriate for the acknowledgment of a fine achievement.” Beth smiled as he continued. “And so, to the distinguished attorney who obtained that remarkable eight-figure judgment against Jasco for us. Here’s to a job well done.” He drank and put down his glass.

“That’s very kind of you. I appreciate it.” Beth smiled broadly and took a sip from her bugle-stemmed glass. She had listened to the toast with only half an ear, yet something in it struck a discordant note. She replayed the toast in her mind, then attributed it to her difficulty with his accent. She took another sip of the champagne and the concern disappeared.

“Oh, before I forget,” C.K. said, “could you arrange to have the Jasco files shipped to us in Taiwan?”

“Of course. They take up most of two file cabinets.”

“I can imagine.”

“Are you sure you want it all? We can scan it for you instead.”

“No, send the actual files. We make a habit of retaining closed files in our home office.”

“Not a problem. We can always use the storage space. I’ll have my assistant take care of it.”

“I’d appreciate that. Do you have any other Paramount files in your office?”

“Not as far as I know,” she responded. “Jasco was the only one we were handling.”

“Would you check just to be certain?” The absence of any inflection in his voice made it more of an order than a question.

“Of course. I’ll circulate a memo to all the other attorneys.” It was easier for her to do it than explain to him why it wasn’t necessary.

“I would appreciate that. If anything else should turn up, have your assistant call my office.”

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” Her receptors had been dulled by the adulation and blurred by his accented English.

“No, not at all, but my conservative father is fanatical about the preservation of paper records. He feels that no matter how old it is, you’ll need it desperately the day after you discard it.” He dismissed her question with the knowing shrug of children sharing the foibles of their parents.

“I understand,” she acknowledged. “I’ll have my assistant call one way or the other.”

“Thank you.”

“You know, it was quite a surprise when you called from Taiwan last week to set up this date. We all thought Leonard Sloane owned Paramount Equities.”

“We create that impression on purpose. My brothers and I let our local people run their operations with as little interference as possible from Taiwan.”

“What’s the advantage of that?”

“It’s cheaper. More efficient. But I suppose we really do it to avoid paying too high a price for regional prejudice. There’s always one price for foreigners and one for the locals.”

“How do you maintain control, then?”

“We control the checkbook. Every business of ours employs a family member who signs every check, and we always use a branch of Fidelity Bank.”

“How come?”

“Because they’re headquartered in Taiwan and I sit on their board of directors.” He smiled and lifted his wineglass as he spoke in an effortless gesture that exposed a magnificent sapphire-and-diamond cuff link and a solid gold Rolex watch encrusted with diamonds.

“Where else do you have operations?” she asked, thinking how nice it would be to get a big chunk of that business into the law firm. She made no effort to break off the eye contact he had encouraged.

“We’re pretty much worldwide now, mostly real estate. We own and operate properties in Asia and Europe, of course, the United States, the Middle East, not so much in Africa.”

“It must keep you running around.”

“It does. Are you the name partner in Wilcox, Swahn and Giles?”

“No, that’s my stepfather, Max Swahn. He retired as senior partner a few years ago. Clifford Giles runs the firm now.”

“Does your stepfather practice law anymore?”

“He and my mother live on a sailboat down in the Caribbean, but he can’t resist getting involved. He’s working with me now on an article I’m writing about the Jasco case. The NYU Law Review wants to publish it.”

“I’d like to read it when you’re done.”

“I’ll be happy to send you a copy.” Leung didn’t know about her intensely competitive nature, and she wasn’t going to give him any of that insight. He didn’t know that winning was expected of her and that acknowledgment was her Achilles’ heel.

“I’ll also forward it on to our international trade association in Taipei. I’m sure they’ll want to circulate it among the members.”

“Terrific. The case had merit. I was just the...

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Verlag
Ballantine Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2016
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1101884371
ISBN 13 
9781101884379
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
320
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Verantwortliche Person
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