The Axel Files: Florence's Floozy

What would you do to be rich? Not just rich, but fabulously rich. Perhaps you are that unique soul that has no dreams, no aspirations, no agenda… well if you are, good luck. It must be a very dreary existence. But if you’re like the rest of us, you have a fantasy, a vision of what could be, of what you could be. Maybe that dream is selfish, or maybe it’s altruistic, or maybe... it’s extremist.

What if there was a family jewel, an exquisite 133-carat pink piece of perfection, a diamond that historically belonged to you, and what if that gem was stolen and disappeared for eighty years? And what if, rumour had it, that diamond suddenly reappeared? What lengths would you go to get it back? And what if the person who stole that diamond promised it to some very bad people so he could get his family to safety during a war? And what if that person was murdered for making that Faustian deal that he refused to deliver on? What if… What if…

When people are desperate, when people run out of options, when people have no other place to go… who do they turn to? Perhaps to a man like Axel Webb. Why? Just ask him. He’ll tell you: “I find things; I find out things about things, and I find evidence of things.”

So it’s not surprising that an exiled Italian Conte and his wife, a pair of religiously motivated social extremists, and the great-granddaughter of the man who stole the gem all find their way to Axel Webb’s office.

International intrigue, religious extremism, self-preservation, and murder are all facets of the glittering pink prize. Who will find it, and at what cost? Or does it even still exist?