When historian and amateur detective Lawrence Lightfoot gets a call from the eccentric Didier Lemaire, he reluctantly agrees to a meeting that will change both men's lives forever.
Lemaire claims that the shocking death of Charles McIntyre can't be properly investigated by the police. McIntyre, an American businessman, friend and business partner of Lemaire, was found bound, beaten, and dead in his rented apartment. Lemaire insists that Lightfoot's unique detective skills and discretion are vital to finding the culprits.
After a meeting with police, Lightfoot decides to take on the case. He travels to New York to interview McIntyre's family and associates, is followed and attacked by mysterious assailants, renews an old love while falling hopelessly and futilely for a new one, and finally learns that the police in Paris have discovered that Lemaire has gone missing, possibly a new victim of McIntyre's killers.
Returning to Paris, Lightfoot's quest to find the murderers turns up clues regarding a treasure of some sort that disappeared during the Second World War and exposes several astonishing relationships of the people involved in the mystery. In continuing his search for the killers, a high police official dies and a connection is soon made to McIntyre's death and possibly Lemaire's disappearance. Old love letters, a poignant visit to the American cemetery in Normandy, and a "shot in the dark" trip to Geneva help uncover the mystery of the murders and other crimes spanning back more than half a century, which are finally revealed in a gloomy cellar of an abandoned chateau.
About the Author: P. W. Kielty's work has been published in Crimespree Magazine, Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine, The Lyric, Atlanta Review, the Deronda Review, and the Edison Literary Review.
Kielty was born and raised in the United States and spent more than twenty years as a business manager for France and eventually all of Europe at an international tax and business law publisher. For his work, Kielty traveled extensively throughout Western Europe while falling in love with France. He lives along the Loire River in France with his wife, Francoise, and their Cairn terrier.
The Long Shadow of Death is the first book in the Lightfoot Trilogy. Readers will look forward to its sequels, Old Soldiers Never Die and Fatal Favors.
