A woman pauses in a darkened San Diego beach house at night'listening for just the right moment when she can flee before her companion notices that she's gone.

A man outside watches the same mansion, waiting for a sign that he can enter on his mission of blood and carnage.

Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught ina web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin in one of the most entertainin novels vet in this New York Times bestselline series.

A woman pauses in a darkened San Diego beach house at night'listening for just the right moment when she can flee before her companion notices that she's gone.

A man outside watches the same mansion, waiting for a sign that he can enter on his mission of blood and carnage.

So begins this riveting new tale aFout Paul Madriani and his latest case-that of Katia,a woman accused of an unlikely crime-a trial that will unravel a horrifying conspiracy stretching from Southern California to Costa Rica, and, ultimately, to a secret buried since Castro's rise to power in Cuba.