Eve of Creation (Swan-Knight Series Book 2) by Ronald Paul Speakes
In this thrilling international mystery, philanthropist Richard Palgrave and his delightful Buddhist-monk colleagues are pulled into a dangerous pursuit to France, Syria and Iraq (and a possible location of the Garden of Eden) to try to stop a threat of destruction to a Washington, DC, art museum from being carried out. While it’s obvious this…
In this thrilling international mystery, philanthropist Richard Palgrave and his delightful Buddhist-monk colleagues are pulled into a dangerous pursuit to France, Syria and Iraq (and a possible location of the Garden of Eden) to try to stop a threat of destruction to a Washington, DC, art museum from being carried out. While it’s obvious this is not the typical threat, as the eve of the potential event nears, Palgrave comes to realize that he is intentionally being led not only into the ‘clash of civilizations’ but also into a personal psychological realm, while engaged in a harrowing search for answers through the chaos of the Middle East – potentially being a target himself. Or, on the other hand, is it a search for a passage to creation?
This is book two of the Swan-Knight series but is not a sequel. It can be read as a stand-alone novel.
“A Worthy Read For All Americans”
Five Star Review on Amazon By CC Barron
This second book by the author leads us down some of the same labyrinths of suspense as his previous text but in a more contemporary setting that many readers may have an opinion of but only a cursory knowledge of the characters, setting, and plot of this thriller. I enjoyed reading it and yet it left me pondering the state of our nation and the middle east as members of a diverse human family that has been interacting since the end of the first world War. It has caused met go back and read again Robert D. Kaplan’s The Revenge of Geography and others that call our attention to US Exceptionalism.
About the Author
Ronald Paul Speakes is a novelist, poet and pursuer of intellectual excitement. He currently lives with his wife, Donna (therefore far from a lonely existence), in suburban Washington, DC. He did his graduate studies in philosophy and political theory at Georgetown University. Besides writing, he has been an educator and a humanitarian relief responder to such disasters as 9/11 World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina. Born in a town overlooking the beautiful shore of Lake Michigan, he has lived in a range of places, to include Italy and the Pacific Islands, and traveled extensively; however, the author understands that all places used in a novel are fictionally created for the fertile mind of the reader.