Bones of Contention

An international espionage novel that centers around controversies of the sacred relics of one of the most revered saints— St. Nicholas, gift-giver emeritus and embodiment of Santa Claus—over the course of two millennia, throughout the Cold War to the present day; conversely, his holy legacy has engendered a geo-political tension and jealousy between the Vatican, Turkey, the U.S. and Russia: a condition that has gravely impacted military and church hierarchies alike. The plot reads through the eyes of undercover USAF veterans in the 1960’s involved in top secret assignments as Russian radio intercept translators, who must concurrently monitor fellow airmen at risk of treason, desertion, passing classified information, and/or blackmail. The key monitoring base locations in Italy and Turkey lead the intelligence officials to inextricable involvement with the precious, archeological remnants of “San Nicola”—a situation that virtually repeats itself in a subsequent generation as civilians in 2020.