Once upon a Time in Byzantium

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Byzantium : the word itself denotes a period of chicanery, treachery and willful duplicity. Thus this novel begins with a conundrum that foretells the intricacies the reader will encounter as the plot unfolds.

"Richard Unger is dead," the story begins. "gone for twenty-eight years. Murdered in 1974." Herein, these words tell you everything and yet nothing. And so the story unfolds in an aura of mystery.

From the beginning Richard Unger makes it clear he is writing of these events under extreme pressure. He prays those who read this material, after examining the facts, might grant some sort of absolution. But that is for the reader to decide.

Richard and Mary Nell have, the last twenty-eight years, been leading a privileged life in Dallas, Texas enjoying the fruits of lucrative careers. Their tranquility is shattered when they receive an anonymous note taunting them with information which proves the correspondent knows they are living under false pretences. The missive concludes he possesses knowledge they are responsible for the death of the writer's soul-mate in 1974. Now it is their time to be destroyed.

The author's memoir is based on events from the distant past which now are destined to spin out of control. He sums it up when he "Whenever I think of the past I try to rearrange the facts in some sort of logical manner. However events can only be changed at the point of origin. If then. If ever." Thus, Richard and Mary Nell find themselves caught in a net of mystery and subterfuge where they are about to enter a bizarre world of their own making.

As Richard recalls how his past was marked by involvement in a life of trickery and deception he also express hope that the contents of this journal might pave the way for a better understanding of the forc