In the Pacific Ocean, some three thousand kilometres north of Hawaii, lies the kingdom of the Aradian Islands. Five rocky islands that have held their own for centuries in an endless battle with the relentless and unforgiving northern ocean.
The mystique and dark legacy of Queen Aradia, the first ruler of the Aradian Islands, still casts its restless, chaotic shadow over the kingdom.
One day in April, Queen Aradia’s great-times-five grandson, the ruling monarch of the Aradian Islands for the last fifty-five years, dies. The death of beloved King Hilarion is the catalyst for a chain of events that will shake apart the lives of three young women and propel them into the unknown far beyond the point of no return.
Victoria, the spoiled, overachieving socialite, has spent her life excelling at excelling. As intelligent as she is beautiful, her life is privileged beyond what most people achieve, even in their dreams. One night at an exclusive underground nightclub that caters to the dark sides of the rich and privileged, a police raid ignites a riot. In a moment of spontaneity that is completely out of character, Victoria flees with a devious stranger down a path where she discovers the point of no return is not very well marked.
Natalie, starry-eyed dreamer and hopeless romantic, clings to the belief that fairy tales contain at least a magical thread of truth. In a ridiculous twist of irony, she has spent her adult life in her father’s military-style boot camp for survivalists, mercenary wannabes and delinquent teenagers. It’s a life lived in camo and combat boots, endless survival missions with bumbling, inept recruits, nights spent in mosquito-infested swamps, and conquering terrain that would irritate most goats. Faced with the fact that she will never find Prince Charming in a muskeg, Natalie makes her bid for freedom in the city of Calgary. When a barroom brawl leaves her at a loose end, an unexpected opportunity leads her to a meeting with two strangers whose pasts are as mysterious as her own.
Ashley, the enigmatic, quick-witted farm girl, has a life of security, stability and love in front of her. On a whim that only those who embrace the strange and unpredictable could understand or act on, she dumps her fiancé of three years and runs off with a hillbilly rock band. The freedom of life on the road and a sizzling new romance with the band’s drummer are worth the trampling of a few morals. Life is grand, until it’s not. After a humiliating encounter worthy of a bad Hollywood comedy, Ashley flees into the night. At the wheel of her getaway vehicle is a stranger who unwittingly stirs up long-buried memories of the very thing she has been searching for her whole life: her past.
Three strangers, brought together by the mysterious Horatio Hanes. He lures them into his web of secrets and deceit with trickery, bribery and lucrative offers to join his specialized detective agency. What the Victor Laslo Detective Agency specializes in is open to interpretation.
When long-buried memories start to surface, Victoria, Natalie and Ashley realize this is not the first time they have met, and Horatio is somehow the tie that binds them together. Before the sticky web of Horatio can completely ensnare them, they join forces in a con of their own to beat the conman at his own game.
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