Echo Five - Echo Five takes place at the end of the world where terror is the norm and the heat arrives from the rim of hell. Jason Ender, who has been assigned to debrief high value terrorists in the Horn of Africa, finds himself caught in a rising tide of violence that begins with the death of a young female interrogator—Echo Five—and ends with the discovery of a plot that threatens to pull the plug on the petroleum lifeline to the West.

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The Severan Prophecies - When the Roman emperor Caracalla was assassinated, his family gave the task of safeguarding their dynasty to the questor Marcellus Decimus, the narrator of this story. How he led a young boy named Varius in a race against death that culminated in the restoration of the dynasty is one of the more remarkable episodes in the chaotic and violent history of Rome.

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Martyr's Creek - When your worst enemy makes you the executor of his estate, you don't expect an easy time. What James Pandolph discovers in settling Tom Powys' considerable estate is nothing compared to what is required settling the passions of his life. This includes neo-conservative politics at the highest level and the bodies that have fallen at every step along the way.

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Graveyard Eyes - The torture and murder of a prominent businesswoman launches a police investigation that ruffles the collar of the gigantic city of Istanbul. Inspector Levent, the man the department calls when discretion is demanded, uses all his skills to make his way through a maze of sex and hot money, obscured at every turn by the realities of power. When he reaches the pinnacle of society, the discoveries that he makes provide a scintillating top-down view of Turkey, the Moslem country on the verge of entry into the EU.

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The Peacock Angel - Jason Ender, the acknowledged master of the espionage game, leads a team of dedicated people in a desperate hunt for a mysterious, ancient religious icon. With the future of the Middle East at stake, Ender soon discovers that despite his vast talents and skills, he may be fated for death by powerful forces determined to take and use the icon for their own purposes. From the streets of Zurich to the mountains of Italy and the hills of Mesopotamia, the action rolls inexorably toward the surprising and unexpected conclusion.

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Less Than a Shadow - As hot as today's headlines. Turkey, the front line of democracy in the Middle East, is about to suffer a devastating terrorist attack. Jason Ender stands alone on the rim of chaos with orders to prevent it, whatever the price.

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Like a Man - Czech paratroopers make a night-drop into their Nazi-occupied homeland during WW II. Their objective? To kill the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany. They accomplish their mission against insurmountable odds, then seek safety in the catacombs of an ancient church. When confronted by an entire SS regiment, their chances of escape are slim to none.

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A Long Way From Eden - When a sinkhole freakishly erupts, the decaying remains of a young woman surface. Homicide detectives are forced to dig ever more deeply along twisted, dangerous paths into the past. Their journey makes for a haunting, teeth-grinding tale.

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Price - St. Martin's Press

Gage - St. Martin's Press

The Black Chamber - St. Martin's Press

White Gamma - St. Martin's Press

Brick Alley - Delacorte Press

The Shadow Master - iUniverse

Red Bishop One - Imprint Books

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Readers > David Chacko
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I live in Istanbul most of the year, with side trips to every place I can manage. I'm lucky in this, because Istanbul is a great city of fifteen million people in the most central location on earth.

It's a cosmopolitan place that stands on the verge of the turmoil called the Middle East. It's not hard to feel the tremors that occur from time to time, like aftershocks of earthquakes. I try to pass on the reports by keeping an ear to the ground.

Istanbul was the center of Christianity for a thousand years and the center of Islam for five hundred more, and perhaps for that reason is basically irreligious. The city tries to stand aside from sectarian troubles and usually succeeds in spite of the fact that the current government is Islamic and Fundamental. The arts and the people who make them thrive better here than anywhere in the Islamic world. A sense of history combined with a booming modernity have few equals anywhere. Turkish cuisine is one of the finest. And the beauty of Turkish women is certainly the best kept secret in this world.

All this makes a rich environment for a writer. Less Than a Shadow was my first novel set in Istanbul, but not the last. The Peacock Angel, featuring Jason Ender, the American agent introduced in Less Than a Shadow, travels farther afield into continental Europe and Eastern Turkey--two entirely different environments. In Echo Five, my third book in the Jason Ender series, he is sent to the Horn of Africa. My new detective series has as its narrator Inspector Levent of Istanbul Homicide, a character also spun off from Less Than a Shadow. The first Levent novel is titled Graveyard Eyes.

I lived in New England most of my life, mostly in Connecticut and Rhode Island, which is mostly where my novel, Martyr's Creek, takes place. I've rarely written about the area, or the state of mind it sometimes breeds, in fiction or otherwise. That may be odd, but it seems to me now that I was saving all those locations that were salted away in my mind.

In my novel, The Severan Prophecies, a Roman historical, I chose Marcus Aurelius Antoninus from the wealth of outrageous characters who became the emperors of Rome. I did it with the knowledge that he was the most outrageous of all. This is not your mother's Roman historical.

I've published fifteen novels, and all of them--whether they are spy stories or crime stories--have been mysteries. My website, Mystery Central, says as much. It can be found at www.davidchacko.com .

David Chacko
Istanbul, Turkey
October 12, 2005