Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A young English schoolteacher, Charlotte Parsons, is invited to reume her job as nanny to the children of a well-to-do Sicilian family. But this time Charley is the central figure in a desperate plot by the US Drug Enforcement Agency to trap Mario Ruggerio, would-be head of the Sicilian Mafia, the man who masterminds a multi-billion dollar international drugs trade. Charley is to be the bait in the trap and, in deciding to return to the Ruggerio family in Palermo, is about to enter the killing ground...

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Seymour's popularity with critics and readers doesn't depend on his ability as a stylist; he writes serviceably, but usually not with elegance. It's tremendous narrative drive that has made most of his previous thrillers (The Heart of Danger) so exciting. But there's a heavy, thumping quality to the writing of his latest that all but derails a well-researched story. The premise promises suspense: Charlotte (Charley) Parsons, a 23-year-old English schoolteacher, is recruited by an American DEA agent for a very dangerous game. She is to go to Palermo to look after the children of Giuseppe "Peppino" Ruggerio, the brother of‘and chief money launderer for‘reclusive Sicilian drug lord Mario Ruggerio. Most of the dialogue (and there's a lot of dialogue) is stiff and clotted, especially in the many exchanges among American DEA agents, Italian anti-Mafia police and British Fraud Squad investigators intent on finally bringing down Mario Ruggerio. Without believable dialogue, ferocious DEA zealot Axel Moen, who recruited Charley, rarely comes off as much more than an animated cause. Charley fares better, because we see through her eyes that the world she's risking isn't worth very much to her. The sad decline of Peppino's wife, Angela, moreover, demonstrates vividly how crime destroys lives indirectly as well as by the blast of a bomb or a shotgun. The velocity of much of Seymour's previous work just isn't here, however, and this lack detracts from the interest readers might have in his insights into the Mafia's role in the world drug trade. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Twenty-three-year-old Charlotte "Charlie" Parsons is suffocating. Living at home with her parents in a small village in Cornwall, she sees no future except teaching snotty first-formers in the village primary. But excitement enters her life twice in one day. First, she receives a letter from Giuseppe and Angela Ruggerio, the Italian family Charlie worked for one wonderful summer. Will she come back to Italy and take care of the three Ruggerio children? To Charlie, it's a heaven-sent opportunity to escape. Later that day, she's visited by a coldly sinister American DEA agent named Axel Moen, who plans to use Charlie to reel in Mario Ruggerio, brother of Giuseppe and capo of the Sicilian Mafia. Naive Charlie offers the perfect foil--a watcher who can contact Axel and his crew the minute she spots Mario on one of his clandestine visits to his brother's house. But, of course, nothing is that simple, and Axel's fine plan erupts into a horrifying chain of events that changes Charlie's life forever. Seymour's latest is possibly his best yet--a gripping thriller that leads to a shattering climax. Superb reading. --Emily Melton

Kirkus Book Review

An utterly unsentimental and elegantly crafted tale of the global drug trade, from the immensely accomplished Seymour (The Heart of Danger, 1995, etc.). Axel Moen, a Rome-based DEA operative, recruits a young Englishwoman named Charlotte (Charley) Parsons to help him bring La Cosa Nostra's aging capo to some sort of justice. Four years earlier, Charley had spent a happy summer working as a nanny at the home of Giuseppe (Peppino) Ruggerio, the younger, university- educated brother of Mario, a cunning, elusive fugitive who heads LCN. When his unhappy wife gives birth to a third baby, Peppino (a virtuoso at laundering large sums of dirty money) invites Charley to resume her post as a mother's helper and companion. Cautioning Charley to lie low until the appearance of Mario (the target of the DEA's campaign), Moen keeps a lonely, nerve-wracking watch over his confidential informant as she goes about her household duties in the high-rent district of Sicily's blood-drenched capital. Then Peppino attracts the attention of Scotland Yard on a flying visit (under an alias) to the UK. Subsequent inquiries disclose that an American agency has plucked a local rose without telling the host country's law-enforcement agencies; with noses out of joint, the buck is passed up the line to ranking functionaries in Washington, who decide that the diplomatic as well as political risks are too great. The order comes down to abort the operation. Before the withdrawal directive can be executed, however, all hell breaks loose on the killing grounds of Palermo. In a show of power, Mario issues a contract on a troublesome magistrate (who dies in a spectacular car bombing) and then boldly comes out of hiding for a family celebration. At the close, the forces of good have won a famous victory, albeit one whose high cost makes it bittersweet. An arresting saga of the world that turns on menace, mistrust, moral ambiguity, and vaulting ambition.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Gerald Seymour was born on November 25, 1941 in Guilford, Surrey, England. He received a BA Honors degree in Modern History from University College London. He was a broadcast journalist who covered many overseas conflicts including the Vietnam War, the Munich Olympics massacre, and Palestinian militant groups.

His first book, Harry's Game, was published in 1975 and soon afterwards, he retired from journalism to become a full-time author. Many of his other books were adapted into television movies and Field of Blood was adapted as the feature film, The Informant, starring Timothy Dalton.

(Bowker Author Biography)