Tom Barnes 39

Jacob Meyers is stunned to see his father's Pissarro-taken by the Nazis in 1945-among the paintings up for sale at The Old World Auction House in Manhattan. He questions the manager, and while he reads a phony provenance, the Pissarro is withdrawn from sale and mysteriously disappears. Jacob, head of an intelligence group, alerts Interpol and joins their ongoing investigation into the underground world of stolen art.

Two suspect paintings, a Manet and a Cézanne sold by an international cartel in Berlin as copies, are tracked to the Berghoff Gallery in Chicago where they are auctioned off as originals. An accidental shooting at the gallery exposes the cartel's con game and leads to the blackmail of a Las Vegas odds maker, the murder of a San Francisco politician, and the assassination of a former matinee idol in West Virginia.

With the help the Founders Group Intelligence (FGI), a group of patriotic activists whose primary objective is to preserve the Constitution, protect U.S. Sovereignty, and expose political corruption, Jacob doggedly pursues the trail of clues from an estate in Georgia to a castle in Denmark to recover the priceless pieces before the originals become lost among the forgerie

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When Doc Holliday went west after he discovered he had tuberculosis, which caused the death of his mother, he left behind a sweetheart who thought he would return after his cure in the warm, dry climate of the west. More than one doctor told him the disease was in the early stages and there was a chance he could be cured . During the incredible research about the life of Doc Holliday the author discovered that this sweetheart, besides being a cousin of Doc Holliday was a distant cousin of Margaret Mitchell. This beautiful, girl, Mattie Holliday, wrote letters to Doc for several years which were bundled up and sent back to his family after his death. Mattie became a nun in the order of Sisters of Mercy. She was sister superior at the Sacred Hearst Convent in August and later at the Immaculate Conception Convent in Atlanta . Margaret Mitchell used to visit her in the decade before Gone With The Wind was published. If you read the letters which appear in this book, you will know almost immediately which of the main characters of GWTW was inspired by Mattie Holliday.

The author, Tom Barnes, uses his talent and skill in scriptwriting to portray the times of John Henry Holliday . He was born in Griffin , Georgia and as a young boy moved with his family to Valdosta , Georgia a year before the end of the Civil War. In 1872, John Henry was graduated with honors from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. Thus when he went west he became known as "Doc" Holliday.

His first stop was Dallas , Texas where he started a dental practice in the office of an already established dentist who also taught him the fine points of poker. Soon Doc made his living gambling and spent all hours in bars and saloons. (So much for rest and fresh air.) Although Kate Elder saved his life by getting him out of town when he was accused of murder in a card game, it is difficult to understand why he continued living with such a jealous, angry, troublesome woman who drank too much. After moving from place to place they ended up in Tombstone , Arizona , recruited by Wyatt Earp . Doc seemed to be friends with many people including those considered out-laws. Even Eddie Foy, the actor and entertainer, was a friend. But Doc's angry, drunken behavior may have precipitated the shoot out at the O K Corral. Those interested in the O K Corral may be more fascinated by the trial which took place afterwards. This book is a great reference for the decade of the Old West which has become a legend in our country's history.