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THE PARIS EDGE by E. Howard Hunt

THE PARIS EDGE

by E. Howard Hunt

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13138-0
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

In the latest from Hunt (Islamorada, Feb. 1995, etc.), ex-US secret agent Bradley Mason (``call me Mace'') now owns and runs Secours S.A. in Paris, with help from secretary Yasmi, henchmen Rene and Raoul, and a clutch of on-call aids. Among other things, Mace's services include bodyguarding and investigations of industrial espionage and insurance fraud. The agency's newest client is gorgeous blonde Erica, Condesa de Montaner, whose husband Carlos languishes in a Swiss jail on charges of embezzling millions from the world-wide superscam known as IFT, International Financial Trust. Carlos has been set up, according to Erica, who wants him freed so she can divorce him and get on with her life. And from a series of bedroom encounters it soon appears that Mace is slated to be a major part of the future she envisions. Burrowing into the annals of IFT, he hones in on Vartan Chakirian, one of its directors, as the scam's kingpinhis ill-gotten gains in the megamillions. Chakirian's exotic secretary Selena is eager to cooperate with Macein the boudoir as elsewherein bringing down her villainous boss. Graphic depictions of sex and torture abound as the body count mounts. Meanwhile, Mace flies in and out of the country, dines at Paris's best, and, with help from well-placed contacts, his team of thugs, and a staggering array of electronic gadgetry, accomplishes his missionand winds up a multimillionaire in the process. Competently written pulp trash for the 90s, verging on self- parody most of the way.