charles d martin

Provocateur explores that aspect of the human experience that surrounds the age-old contest between men and women. It is the story of Nadia, a young Russian woman who comes to America through a mail-order-bride program. She becomes employed in an enterprise operated by an ex-CIA agent named Olga, whose agency, through clever missions, extracts large amounts of money from wealthy men.
In her “assignments” Nadia must get the best of alpha males that are at the top of the male order. In the novel we follow Nadia through three missions, each bigger and more dangerous. Along the way she has a brief encounter with romance. The missions are like “sting” operations; beginning with a target that is a prominent CEO of a large privately-held company based in Los Angeles; the second takes place in San Francisco at the time of the upcoming America’s Cup competition. In that episode her target is Roberto Bartolini, the super-rich, arrogant sponsor of the Italian racing team. In her third mission she goes up against a Russian oligarch in a mission that takes her into danger and to high life settings in the South of France and Porto Cervo on Sardinia.
Nadia, born an orphan, rises out of a life of poverty and despair, where she had no experience with affection, to face her struggles and take on the challenges of her “profession.” She is a complex, enigmatic woman of superior intelligence who must “win” through her finesse and feminine prowess.