A PATIENT ENEMY

I SPOT HIM ACROSS THE ROOM AND REALIZE I HAVE ONLY MINUTES TO LIVE. THE PARTNER I BETRAYED SEVEN YEARS AGO. HOW PATIENTLY HE WAITED FOR HIS REVENGE. BUT THERE WAS NEVER REALLY ANY DOUBT HE WOULD RISE FROM THE DEAD TO COME FOR ME. A master criminal who’s also a passionate art lover.A long-lost painting by Johannes Vermeer.A completely green and very young private investigator hired to find a missing art professor by a wife whose motives are suspect.And two police detectives investigating an unidentified corpse pulled up from the depths by a fisherman.Near the shores of Lake George in upstate New York, a mystery is taking shape and the person trying to solve it, Harvey Grace, has no idea who he can trust. When Kane opened the drawer and his hand found the gun, he lifted it and instantly realized he was dead, as dead as if he already had a stake in his heart, or a bullet buried deep in his brain because he knew from the weight of the weapon that his friends were gone, those thirteen little guys who had been his steadfast buddies for all these years--the twelve bullets that had rested snugly in the clip, waiting so patiently to one day be called upon, and the loner that had loyally stood at attention in the chamber the whole time.They had all been kidnapped by Zola.Kane dropped the useless weapon.And then he realized Zola was of course behind him already, after moving in dead silence from whatever spot in the room where he had invisibly crouched like the ghost he was, or on second thought maybe he hadn’t moved because no one could move that quietly. He’d just materialized behind Kane. Teleported, maybe.Zola spoke only two words: 'Goodbye, Gaspard,' as calmly and politely as if they were old friends parting after having a drink together at the neighborhood bar, and Kane’s final thought was: Seven years. He waited that long to get me. If nothing else, he’s a patient enemy. 'Greco hooked me from page one. Take A Patient Enemy to the beach, you’ll inhale it in a day!' -Robin Lewis, publisher, author, former executive VP and executive editor at WWD, CEO of The Robin Report'... a classic noir from S.E. Greco that’s true to the genre and doesn’t disappoint... unfolds with all the suspense of a black and white thriller from 1940s Hollywood...'-Robert Sultan, author of The Vientiane Affair and Slaughtering Girl'The twisting plot kept me guessing and I could not put it down. I was taken in by the head-fakes, hidden clues and salty characters. I will never believe the attribution on a painting again. Overall, a great read.' -Robert Berne, author of Tuscan Son