The Italian Venture

Is there anyone who wouldn't want to have €30 million? Carlo, a paparazzo, thought he had found a way. In Scotland, he films three high NATO officials, pedophiles, who commit a horrible crime. Carlo thought his ship had come in. He plans to blackmail the pedophiles for €30 million. Mistake. He leaves behind his camera case, which can identify him. These men are desperate, ruthless, and powerful. They send a small army to look for him and recover the film. Two people whom Carlo trusted, Guido, his former employer, and Luigi, owner with his twin brother Alessandro of Rai Quattro, with whom he deposited a copy of the film, betray him and join the blackmail game. Milton Lessing, American insurance sleuth is sojourning in Venice with Elena, her father Joe, Dr. Mancini and his brilliant artist Sofonisba, who has painted the masterpiece Venus Rising Again. They are dragged into this deadly game when Guido invites them to a dinner party. They arrive late and find the diners murdered by an assassin called The Postman. One of the victims was an associate of Wolf von Babenberg, Milton's former employer. Inspector Bolelli suspects Milton and his friends had something to do with the crime. The only witness was Tasso the cat. While Luca Malatesta, the villa's owner and reputed enforcer for the Venetian Black Nobility, and Francesca, his moll. are presenting their ironclad alibi, someone calls to report that the newspaper building has been blown up (destroying the film Carlo had deposited there). Fearing that he was the target, Guido absconds and urges Milton and his friends to do the same. They flee for Rome from the police, who follow them, and from The Postman, whose employer, the Belfagor League, wants Milton dead to avenge a previous encounter in Cyprus. The Postman jumps on the train just as it is pulling out of the station. The Belfagor League has contracted with two Swiss doctors to develop a synthetic blood that would confer practical immortality. The experiment failed, and the League wants to come for the treatment or wants their money back (which the Swiss don't have). Two Russian doctors now in partnership suggest a solution by use of their mind transporter. They demonstrate its results by presenting two striking Brazilian girls, who in fact are octogenarian Swiss aristocrats. The Swiss doctors tell the League to come for the "treatment." The action races from Venice to Rome (where underneath the Vatican Milton and Elena discover a hidden city to Switzerland to Moscow to Vienna (where they foil a terrorist attack) and to idyllic Lugano, where the strings of this web of intrigue converge. Two blackmailers and their forces, Luca and his moll, The Postman, Inspector Bolelli, the Lugano police, the pedofiles' thugs, and Milton, Mancini, and Eric (Wolf's gorilla) encounter each other. The action reaches its climax in an air-naval battle on the lake for the money. Who will get the money? Will Milton and his friends survive? Will Tasso identify The Postman? What will happen to the pedophiles? To Carlo, Guido, and Luigi? Will the Belfagor League get the immortality treatment? Buckle up, climb on board to find out, and go on a thrilling, entertaining, and informative journey to some of the world's most captivating places and meet some unforgettable good and evil types engaged in a life and death struggle in this gripping epic novel.