Books by David Orsini

I sommeren 1942 involverer Marc Roussillon, en heltemodig fransk pilot, der flyver med RAF, sin kone Simone i en plan for at redde sin bedste ven, Jean-Claude, som er blevet taget til fange af tyskerne. Marc kender Simones indflydelse på den tyske officer Gerhard Hauptmann, så han opfordrer hende til at overtale Gerhard til at hjælpe hende med at sætte Jean-Claude fri. Han er dog ikke klar over, at Gerhard kun vil hjælpe hende, hvis hun går i seng med ham. Kort før Jean-Claude bliver sat fri, tilbringer Simone ti dage med Gerhard i Schweiz. Da hun forelsker sig i ham, bliver hun forvirret, for hun elsker Marc, men har brug for Gerhard.Da Marc opdager, at Simone er blevet forelsket i Gerhard, lader han hende forstå, at de kun kan redde deres ægteskab, hvis hun medvirker i hans plan om at dræbe Gerhard. I strid med sandheden fortæller han, at Gerhard har mange uskyldige liv på samvittigheden, og hun accepterer. Det hele går imidlertid ikke som planlagt. Simone opdager, at Marc har løjet om Gerhard, så hun må redde ham hurtigst muligt. Det bliver et turbulent trekantsdrama med mange voldsomme episoder.

Marc og Simone er fanget af deres fortid, selvom de fortsætter med at bekæmpe nazisterne. Denne gang leder de efter en dobbeltagent, der har forårsaget tusinder af allierede og modstandsfolks død. Hans Mueller – tidligere nazist, der nu støtter modstandsbevægelsen og er Simones elsker – komplicerer alle aspekter af deres liv. Marc er fast besluttet på at vinde Simones kærlighed tilbage. Han er også fast besluttet på at bevise, at Hans Mueller er den berygtede dobbeltagent. ”Som David Orsinis øvrige bøger er Spøgelseselskerne vidunderligt skrevet og udstyret med et stærkt, dramatisk plot, uforglemmelige karakterer, der hjemsøges af spøgelser fra fortiden, og beskrivelser af naturens skønhed, der står i skærende kontrast til det krigshærgede Europa. Spøgelseselskerne er en hæsblæsende og fascinerende spændingsroman, der holder læseren gangen til sidste linje.” – Lois A. Cuddy, professor emerita i engelsk ved University of Rhode Island og forfatter til Penelope’s Song Uddrag af bogen De lo igen. Så, mens hans to venner drak mere cognac og overgav sig til øjeblikket, begyndte Marc at afhøre dem. Først og fremmest bad han dem identificere – som de havde gjort de sidste to dage – manden, som de tænkte var dobbeltagenten. I flere uger havde ikke kun Raoul og Benoît, men også Valérie Moreau, arbejdet på at opspore forræderens hemmelighedskræmmeri, som puttede hele deres modstandsgruppe i fare. ”Vi tror, at det er Hans Mueller,” sagde Raoul nøgternt. ”Vi er endnu ikke sikre på, at han er forræderen. Vi har ikke nok beviser. Vi ser ham ikke særlig tit, medmindre vi flyver ud af London på den samme bombemission. Når han er i Frankrig på en opgave for modstandsgruppen, arbejder han som regel fra Vichy-sektoren. Han har også gjort London, Lausanne og Bergen til sine kontaktstationer. Alt, vi har fundet, peger i hans retning. Han er den eneste mand på vores team, som kunne samarbejde med nazisterne.” Om forfatteren David Orsini er amerikansk spændingsforfatter. Han har en ph.d. i engelsk litteratur og har undervist på gymnasie- og universitetsniveau.

In Bitterness / Seven Stories, David Orsini explores the lives of characters that are tested as well as transformed or defeated by the loss of a spouse or by the loss of children and other relatives during a world war. Some of the characters are tested by the aftermath of a fatal air crash, by terminal illness, and by unrequited love. The troubled human beings who activate their journeys within these pages include war-haunted veterans, a young protagonist who has inadvertently caused the death of his best friend, and a world-weary engineer who enters an unorthodox sexual triangle. These stories often portray characters who make unwise and sometimes perverse choices and who struggle to move forward to a new cycle.

In the autumn of 1944, Marc Roussillon, a heroic French pilot and Resistance agent, has recovered from the wounds that he sustained when a German officer, Gerhard Hauptmann, shot him. On assignment in Paris for MI5, the British Secret Intelligence Service, he becomes entangled in several violent episodes as he searches for the double agent within the Resistance who has been the catalyst in the deaths of thousands of Allied soldiers and pilots. Gradually, Marc becomes convinced that Hans Mueller is the double agent. Hans is a former Nazi pilot who, having left Germany, has joined the RAF and MI5. At first, Marc plans to urge Hans's girlfriend, Valerie Moreau, to help him expose Hans as the spy and to kill him. Though he has never met Valerie, he is aware that she is a Resistance agent who has fought bravely for the Allies. He wonders whether her love for Hans has blinded her to Hans's treachery. In his first meeting with her, Marc discovers that Valrie Moreau is actually his estranged wife, Simone. A year earlier, Marc destroyed his marriage to Simone when he forced her to kill Gerhard Hauptmann, the German officer with whom she had fallen in love after he helped her rescue a French pilot from the Nazis. Still working for the Resistance, Simone has disguised herself as the daughter of a Nazi sympathizer whom Resistance agents have assassinated. Determined to separate herself from her father's infamy, the real Valrie had been working courageously as a Resistance agent until she was killed during a bombing of Paris. MI5 then assigned Simone to impersonate Valrie and to discover the identity of the double agent. In her relationship with Hans, she has become Valrie's ghost made visible. Marc's first meeting with Simone does not go well. She refuses to enter his scheme to trap Hans Mueller. Even after Marc and other Resistance people apprehend and kill the double agent and his cohorts, Marc insists that Hans Mueller is also guilty. But Simone believes in Hans's innocence. She also suspects Marc of wanting to find a reason to kill Hans because she loves the German who has joined the Allies. He accuses her of falling in love not with Hans, but with Hans as Gerhard's ghost. In England, Marc tries to draw his parents into his plot to trap Hans Mueller. He is surprised when they tell him that Hans may be innocent. Brave Resistance fighters, his parents caution him to search his real motive for wanting to prove that Hans is a double agent. Like Simone, they believe that Marc wants to kill Hans because he is a rival for Simone's love. They convince Marc to join them at their Derbyshire home for a week. Simone and Hans will be there. At that time, Marc and they can further test Hans's loyalty. During the brief holiday from the war, Marc meets Deirdre Sullivan, a lovely Irish girl who has left her home in Galway to become a nurse in war-torn England. Though they are attracted to each other, their trouble-haunted pasts prevent them from rescuing one another. Deirdre cannot let go of the ghost of her husband, who has been killed in the war. Marc refuses to let go of his obsession for Simone and of his memory of their lost happiness, which hoversghostly and insistentabout him. Becoming acquainted with Hans, he learns of the tragedies that the German has endured, and he accords him a grudging respect. But he is determined to win back Simone's love. He is also determined to kill Hans Mueller. In a series of tense and sometimes violent episodes that occur in a Lincolnshire pub, in a Derbyshire forest, and in a park within the Monceau district of Paris, Marc, Simone, and Hans play out the bitter resolution of their triangle.