The French Collection

Ashton Lane is a computer-age Private Invesigator with a PhD in Statistics. He packs a laptop instead of a gun. Ash is hired by the Marquis de Bonneville to recover a set of valuable antique bronzes stolen from his Loire Valley chateau. French antiques have become favorite targets of thieves due to their popularity on the international market. As Ash pursues his quest to find the stolen brozes he is hindered by the murder of a key witness, the disappearance of another, and by several attempts on his own life. The trail leads to two prime suspects, an ex-congressman from New Mexico and a retired oil company exectutive from Dallas. When Ash discovers that one of the suspects is mentally unstable and may have already killed to protect his art collection and/or his reputation, he realizes that recovering the bronzes will reqire all his skills and more than a little luck.