Age Group: Adult
Genre: Adventure, Romance
Release Date: December 31, 2012
Buy Links:
Amazon
Book Description:
A sunken warship from the Byzantine Era carrying an unusual cargo of gold has been found off the coast of Northern Cyprus. News of the valuable cache has attracted the attention of a terrorist cell. They plan to attack the recovery team’s campsite and steal the artifacts. On the Black Market, the sale of the relics will buy them additional weapons.
Charlotte Dashiell, an American archaeologist, and her lover, Atakan Vadim, a Turkish government agent, are scheduled to be part of the recovery team that brings up the artifacts. While en route to Cyprus, they find themselves caught in the crosshairs of Maksym Tischenko, a Ukrainian contract killer bent on revenge. Charlotte, Atakan and Tischenko share a grim history. As a result, Tischenko is a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal—seeing them both dead.
Excerpt:
Atakan didn’t answer as he sped out of camp, spraying dirt and stones behind them.
“What’s going on? Why are you in such a hurry?”
He stared straight ahead, silent.
“Atakan?”
Tight-jawed, he continued down the side road that paralleled the beach, ramming the stick shift into place as he went through the gears and ignoring her questions. She’d never seen him this tense, not with her at least. A bad feeling crept over her. She had a sick sense his mood involved her plan to leave.
They’d gone a kilometer from the camp when he came to a stop. He hopped out, slammed the driver’s door shut and came to her side.
Opening her door, he said, “Get out.”
She did.
“Atakan,” Charlotte started to ask the same questions again, but he was already turned and walking toward the sea.
She followed. He finally stopped near the water’s edge with his back to the surf and faced her. She stopped a couple of yards away.
“When were you going to tell me?”
She knew exactly what he was asking about. Who told him? It wasn’t Nick. He’d honor the twenty-four hour rule.
“Who told you?”
“That’s not an answer.” He stood still as a statue, arms crossed, feet apart.
She hesitated, trying to choose her words so he’d understand and not be hurt. She gazed out at the incoming tide. The blue-green waves, effervescent with bubbles, rushed toward shore in rapid succession. White foam droplets filled the air as they crested, framing him like a new, angry version of Poseidon.
“Answer me.”
“Today.”
“You weren’t going to tell me until today, although you’ve been planning to leave me for awhile.”
“Not awhile.”
“Long enough to send job inquiries to several museums.”
So that was how he knew. One of the museums contacted MIAR and they must’ve sent the questionnaire to Refik and he told Atakan. She hadn’t considered the possibility. She’d thought any contact from the museums would be handled by MIAR’s headquarters.
“I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I intended to tell you if it looked like I’d definitely leave. If none of the museums showed interest, then you never had to know what I’d done.”
“And you believe that is acceptable?”
It killed her to see the look of disgust on his face with the question. “Yes...” she said low.
“Why?”
“Because I’m bad luck for you—everyone can see it, even your--, it’s obvious. There’s something about me, and God knows, I don’t know what, but I’m like a magnet for Tischenko.”
She never cried and she wouldn’t cry now, but she was close. “I can’t bear to see you hurt again, or worse. There are people that bad luck follows, even Iskender thinks so.”
Atakan inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath. Uncrossing his arms, he closed the short distance to where she stood.
“It’s not forever,” she offered, “I’ll return.”
He shook his head. “If you go, you cannot return. You’re either in my life or out of my life. There’s no in between.”
Chris is a retired police detective. She spent twenty-five years in the law enforcement with two different agencies.
The daughter of a history professor and a voracious reader, she grew up with a love for history and books.
She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and Northern Africa satisfying her passion for seeing the places she read about.
A Chicago native, Chris has lived in Paris, Los Angeles, and now resides with her husband, and five rescue dogs in the Pacific Northwest.
I'm wondering how you came up with the names, because they just fit beautifully?
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
@Mary Preston I agree the names are wonderful! Thanks for stopping by! :)
ReplyDeleteGood Morning,
ReplyDeleteI want to thank Corina for showcasing my story today.
I go through and research names both given and surnames of the characters country of origin. I pick ones that appeal to me. I like the sound of the two together. I also look at the meaning. Atakan is a proud man whose father was a career military man. His name in Turkish means "blood of his ancestors." I thought that fitting. The American names I choose because I simply like them:)
Chris Karlsen
Where do you get your ideas for your books, how does the research process even begin for something like this
ReplyDeletefencingromein at hotmail dot com
I love the cover it's perfect for the book. Did you do it yourself?
ReplyDeletejibriel.o at web dot de
HI Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI got the idea for Golden Chariot from visiting the ruins of Troy in Turkey. I love history and so my heroine was an archaeologist. I felt like the Trojan War has been romanticized and has fascinated people since Homer's Iliad. A theory about the war was Charlotte's driving force.
The research was daunting for both stories. For Golden Chariot I had to look into Bronze Age artifacts, culture, language, shipwrecks and archaeological diving and artifact smuggling.
For Byzantine Gold, I had to research Cyprus, the terrorist organization PKK, Byzantine relics and ship types.
I start with books and articles written by experts in those fields. I search out DVD's on the topic from The History Channel, Discovery, BBC, NatGeo. For political info on the PKK for instance, I also read the Hurryiet News, which is the largest newspaper in Turkey. They have an online English language edition. I get the latest news and read the op-ed section for how the people view an event.
Chris
Hi Jibriel,
ReplyDeleteI worked with a cover designer but I had a great deal of input. I had her look at my trailers for both books and my book boards so she had a feel for my aesthetic. I think she did a fab job.
CHris
I agree with others that the cover is so gorgeous and the way they added so many elements of your story on it.
ReplyDeletestrive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com
Hi Jbst,
ReplyDeleteI love the colors. The designer had a stock image of divers, which I wanted. I also like that Istanbul has iconic Byzantine architecture and wanted that as part of the setting is Istanbul and Atakan is a Turkish government agent. I sent the designer a picture of the city from my personal album, but she found a better one. Her idea was to add the bullets in the "o" in Gold and I suggested the crosshairs. Pretty fun to work it all out.
Chris
How did you come up with the title for the book?
ReplyDeletelennascloud AT gmail DOT com
HI Lena,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to use "gold" in some form in the title, which makes it easier for readers to connect it to the other books in the series, in this case Golden Chariot. Since it's a Byzantine shipwreck, I combined the two for the title.
Chris