The Killing Ploy

by Steve Haberman

Several years have passed since 9/11. Pablo de Silva, mother, a tennis champion; father, a wealthy, but now bankrupt Swiss hotelier, walks into the American embassy in Switzerland and volunteers to work for the CIA. Accepted, he does admirable work for them.
Then tragedy strikes, leaving him devastated. He becomes yesterday's man, mostly written off. Except by his CIA mentor, who gives him a second chance. Liaise with the FBI to see if the murders of two top corporate executives, contractors for the American military, with their passports missing, have a terrorist angle. This he does. Soon, however, as he gets deeper into his task, he discovers it becomes dangerously different than expected. And he finds himself ensnared in a scheme to ensnare a ghost where rumor becomes reality for a paranoid on the run.
A spy thriller with locales ranging from sunny San Diego, California to the menacing streets of London, Paris, Lugano, and Berlin. Based on extensive on-site research, this highly contemporary thriller shows that before there was "fake news," there was The Killing Ploy.

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First published May 9, 2012

About the author

Steve earned a B. A. Degree from the University of Texas in Austin, majoring in political science and minoring in history. Afterwards he passed his stock broker's exam and worked for a time at a brokerage house before returning to school. Upon getting his legal assistant certification from UCLA, he worked at a law firm in Los Angeles. Successful stock market investments allowed him to retire early and to pursue two dreams: write and travel. He now divides his time between San Diego and European cities where he researches his stories. He speaks some French and Italian, four words in German, and hopes to expand his fluency in all three in his continuing trips abroad.

He enjoys the cosmopolitan bustle, sidewalk cafes, the museums of Berlin, Rome, Vienna, London, Budapest, and Paris. Many of these capitals and other cities find their way into his stories of intrigue..."Murder Without Pity" (Paris), "The Killing Ploy" (London, Berlin, Paris, and Lugano), "Darkness and Blood" (London and Paris), "Winston Churchill's Renegade Spy" (London and Zurich), “Where the Bones Lie" (Berlin), and his latest, "The Spy from Palestine" (Israel). This last thriller won the 2024 Literary Titan Silver Book Award.