Elizabeth Darrell Boeken

1930. When his former flying partner is killed during the test flight of a brand-new military aircraft, Ben Norton determines to find out the truth behind his wartime colleague's death. Was the fatal crash caused by a design flaw, pilot error - or something more sinister? And what is the wartime secret that caused the rift between the two men?

Turn-of-the-century Hong Kong. A jewel nations fight over. A teeming, exotic city that controls the destiny of the Far East. The fabules, incense-laden stage upon which The Jade Alliance plays out its drama. When their father is murdered by revolutionaries in Czarist Russia and their mother disappears, the aristocratic Brusilov family flees to Hong Kong, where a thriving jade business keeps them afloat. For proud, tempestuous Ivan, Hong Kong is hell, especially after his affair with a Chinese girl brings a fearful vendetta against all the Brusilovs. It is up to his sister, Nadja, to bind the family wounds, despite her fears and loneliness. Her exile becomes bearable only when she falls in love with Andrew Stanton, a British agent investigating the connection between the jade business and a Russian-Chinese alliance. But a living ghost from the Brusilovs' tragic past destroys Nadja's love and jeopardizes Andrew's career just as he uncovers the truth abou the Brusilovs' interests in jade - a truth that could trigger world-shaking repercussions and that threatens life itself. Brimming with life, color and the sweep of history in the making, this is an epic novel that evokes all the mystery, opulence and romance of Hong Kong.