The Double Eagle

July 25, 2005
Making his thriller debut after a career as a London entrepreneur, Twining consciously deals in clichés: 007-ish bad guys, contrived plot mechanisms and Perils of Pauline–style hairsbreadth escapes. He has a nice feel for them. Tom Kirk is a rogue ex-CIA operative who, after a profitable career as an international jewel thief, is attempting to go legit; Jennifer Browne is a foxy FBI special agent trying to work her way back into the good graces of the service after accidentally killing a fellow agent. When a 1933 $20 Double Eagle gold coin turns up in the belly of a dead ex-priest–turned-fence—the rest of the run had officially been listed as destroyed—Jennifer discovers that five other "unofficial" specimens are missing from Fort Knox. Meanwhile, Kirk's final heist, of a priceless Fabergé egg, is catching up with him, and the FBI dispatches Jennifer to London with the gold coin to offer Kirk a deal of immunity if he will help recover the missing coins. The mismatched pair manage to have the remaining coin stolen from them; its trail then leads from London to Paris, Amsterdam and Istanbul. Despite a highly theatrical and overly protracted finale, this is an auspicious beginning for a fledgling series. Agent, George Lucas at Inkwell Management
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