The Fourth Pularchek

Appearing together as major characters for the first time, Nick Lassiter and the beautiful Italian assassin Skyler become embroiled in an international case involving Lassiter’s newly discovered biological father, Polish billionaire Stanislaw Pularchek, and buried secrets from Europe’s World War II past. Their perilous journey takes them from the American capitol to the streets of Warsaw to the murderous gates of Auschwitz to the salt mines and snow-dusted mountain peaks of Austria. But can Lassiter, his adoptive CIA father, and his birth father Pularchek work together as a team to solve the case, and are they prepared for the consequences of stirring up the past? Furthermore, will Skyler be brought to justice for her multiple killings on U.S soil chronicled in Book 2, or will she escape yet again?  



My Review

The more books I read from this author, the bigger the fan I become. This book is my first introduction to Nick and Skyler. Yet, despite having not read the first two books in the Nick Lassiter-Skyler International Espionage series, I instantly connected with both characters. In fact, I enjoyed them both so much that I plan to go back and check out the prior novels. I want to get to know more about their backstories.

Nick is a normal guy but just like the next person, he enjoys the intrigue and danger of espionage. Whereas, Skyler lives and breathes it every day. She is a skilled assassin. She portrays a strong persona that I gravitated towards. The international travels was great. I enjoyed all of the different locations. How the author tied the two characters' storylines together was flawless. This book is not one to be missed. The Fourth Pularchek has all of the markings of a outstanding, well-written, character driven, edge of your seat best selling winner!


Q&A with Samuel Marquis
Courtesy of www.jkscommunications.com

How did you decide to combine The Devil's Brigade, The Coalition, and The Fourth Pularchek into a single international espionage series?

Initially, I wrote my political assassination thriller The Coalition as a standalone novel and The Devil's Brigade (formerly The Slush Pule Brigade) as the first book of the Nick Lassiter Series. However, since both books are in the same genre of modern intelligence-political thrillers a la Tom Clancy and Daniel Silva, I decided to combine them into a single series. My fans enjoyed Skyler, the beautiful Italian assassin in The Coalition, and wanted to see her as a recurring character, so I decided to integrate her and Nick Lassiter, the protagonist of The Devil's Brigade, into an international spy series that features Lassiter as a strong male hero and Skyler as a powerful female anti-hero.

Did any of your previous research into WWII for your novels appear in The Fourth Pularchek?

The book draws heavily from the history of the German Occupation of Rome in 1943-1944 during the Italian Campaign, which was the setting of Altar of Resistance, Book 2 of my WWII Series. Without giving away the plot, several real-life figures that played small to large roles in Altar of Resistance are central to the buried secrets from Europe's WWII past fleshed out in The Fourth Pularchek. These characters include Polizeifuhrer Karl Wolff; Head of the SS in Italy during WWII, and the grandfather of Angela Wolff in The Fourth Pularchek, who is a senior officer with the German Intelligence Service (BND); SS-Colonel Eugen Dollmann, Wolff's clever subordinate; Pope Pius XII; Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a key figure in Vatican Escape Line for Allied POWs and refugees; and Father Pankratius Pfeiffer, an important Vatican liaison with German authorities during the war.

What is the number one thing you want readers to take away from The Fourth Pularchek?

I want them to feel the first-hand emotions of an adopted child, to feel what it's like to have biological and adoptive parents, and to wonder deeply about their family history. I created a larger-than-life fictional character-let's face it, a Polish billionaire-assassin who operates his own fiefdom beholden to no one is definitely larger-than-life-as a surrogate for my own birth father. I want people to ponder "What if one day I met my real biological father and he turned out to be a world-famous European business tycoon and assassin who ran a private intelligence organization that took out the world's bad guys? What would I do? Would I be recoil in horror or perhaps join him in his crusade to rid the world of evil? The Fourth Pularchek is my answer to those very questions.