Alex Turner is an agent with the U.S. Treasury Department.
We first meet Turner when he is in charge of a taskforce out to apprehend diamond smugglers, one of the major players being a notorious youngish but extremely capable woman known as Slav Lily. When that op went pear-shaped, a Catholic church shot up, at least one miscreant killed, and Lily making a dramatic escape leaving Turned picking ricochet wood splinters from his already not-too-handsome face. Turner will find himself in hot water - not the first time - and Lily will disappear briefly before returning in a dramatic way to play a major role in Turner's life, professionally and eventually personally.
Having a Treasury agent go up against diamond smugglers is no reason for membership in this compendium. What makes it fit is the fact that the cases Turner gets involved with, invariably in connection with the highly interesting and deadly Slav Lily, all find themselves deeply connected with international intrigue. One of the key players in the first adventure is someone running for election to the Oval Office. The second adventure will find China playing games to earn great riches by controlling a portion of the diamond industry. The third will see the security of the United States put into peril.
Turner is a federal cop. He does not want to play spy and be thought of a spy or having anything to do with spies. He wants to hunt down bad guys and put them in jail. Unfortunately, what he wants does not alter what he will find himself immersed in.
Slav Lily, on the other hand, seems to have no problem with all the intrigue. In fact, she seems to thrive in turmoil.
Good Lines:
After a sniper shot at a suspect, we are told, "It's true that she wore a Kevlar vest, but, fatally, not a Kevlar hat".
- Told us by Turner about his department inside Treasury, "The people we dealt with were at a level of bad where it was sometimes necessary to put a gun in their ear to promote cooperation."