The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare series continues with the introduction of a new hero.
Before Operation JUBILEE, there was The Vichy Treasury.
Smugglers, spies, and Nazis race for a billion-dollar treasure buried in the Sahara.
When the Nazi blitzkrieg ravaged France, a treasure of incalculable wealth was evacuated. A treasure of such worth that if the Nazis got their hands on it, it would spell the end of the war. A treasure in the form of the entire gold reserves of France, Belgium, & Poland. A treasure of such secrecy that few know its location.
Armed with this knowledge, Freddy Atkinson, the SOE’s fixer, has enlisted an unlikely recruit into the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Gavin Briggs, a down on his luck smuggler, isn’t who you imagine saving the day. In debt to the wrong people in Dakar, Gavin will do anything to save himself and his partners, including hunting for treasure in the desert.
But as Atkinson has his champion, so to do the Nazis. Rudolph Goethe, a cunning and respected Abwehr agent, is hot on the trail for the gold.
As Briggs & Goethe battle to find the treasure, someone else enters the race. Valerie Gaspard, a young, idealistic member of French West Africa’s high society, maneuvers to protect the bullion in her nation’s charge from both the Allies and the Nazis.
As powerful forces jockey for the gold, a scavenger hunt begins that leads across the desert and through the barren Sahels of the Sahara to find where the Vichy Treasury has been hidden.
"Author Conor Bender takes a true WWII event, wraps it in a fictional format, mixes real historical people with layered, believable fictional characters, crafts a plot full of suspense, then like an alchemist, mixes this magical blend and the result is pure gold."
- Sherry Tuffin, WWII Historian
