The Three-Nine Line

More than forty years after their release from the notorious "Hanoi Hilton," three American prisoners of war return to Vietnam to make peace with their most brutal former captor, a guard whom they've dubbed, "Mr. Wonderful." The U.S. State Department hopes reconciliation will help cement a major trade agreement between Washington and the Vietnamese. But when Mr. Wonderful is found murdered, the three ex-POWs are accused of the crime and the multi-billion dollar deal threatens to unravel. Enter pilot, still-aspiring Buddhist, and former military assassin Cordell Logan.While touring Europe, before starting an apprenticeship as a barrister, Gerald Marston, a young Englishman, is running out of cash. He accepts an offer from a London based detective agency to replace a detective who mysteriously vanished while reporting on the activities of the disreputable Lord Ingersoll, the sometime poet and close friend of the late Lord Byron, a man with a dangerous and scandal-ridden past.Ingersoll is living in exile accompanied by Inez Cortina, his exotic mistress and former maid to his late wife, as well as Crankshaw, his valet and catamite. All three are under suspicion for having been responsible for the death of Lady Ingersoll, who drowned one stormy night while sailing their yacht in the Mediterranean.Marston follows the trio to Genoa where Ingersoll pays a visit to his former mistress, Clarissa Shelton, and their lovely daughter, Diana. When the young Englishman begins to fall for the girl, he follows that party back to England, where Clarissa has persuaded Ingersoll to take her daughter, in hopes that she might find a proper husband there. Gerald meets secretly with Diana, who returns his love.Ignoring the warnings of his employer, Gerald accepts an invitation from Diana to dine at Chillon, the ghost-haunted, legendary homestead of the Ingersolls, to meet her father. Little by little, the scandalous legend that surrounds Ingersoll is brought to light, and more mayhem continues to haunt the unfolding drama.