Michael Hawk is a freelance reporter.
This is one very strange series to describe. As it deals with international intrigue and is chock full of spies, it is included in this compendium even though Hawk is not an secret agent. He is, however, as a reporter who has traveled the world and written several damning exposes, earning the wrath of some very powerful people including the KGB. He is also incredibly wealthy, sort of.
At the beginning of the series, told in the first volume, Hawk is a man recently released from a Soviet prison where he was investigating the cruelty he knew to be there. Soon, however, he is intrigued with rumors of a recluse on a Greek island and heads there to investigate.
It is impossible to describe the basis for the remaining 13 books without giving away the ending of the first so here goes. The recluse is a beautiful woman who had inherited a gigantic fortune spread all over the world from her father, a deposed dictator. She is reclusive because the Soviets are the ones who kicker the leader out of his country and they want the vast wealth for themselves. Hawk's investigations into her past come to the attention of the KGB and bring about her tragic death. Almost as a curse as she lay dieing from an assassin's bullet, she passed on to Hawk the secret account number needed to unlock the wealth.
Now he is the holder of the tremendous power the money brings and he knows he can use it to do good. He is also the target of the Soviets who still want what is left over and are not afraid to kill to get it. The only other one who knows the secret behind Hawk and his wealth is a key agent of the CIA who seems not above pushing Hawk into helping out now and then.
By the way, the tag line of 'crusader' comes not only from Hawk's natural predilection for champing various causes but also for the name the dictator had given the corporation controlling most of his money - Crusaders, Inc.