THE AUCTIONEER

A thriller that moves between Los
Angeles luxury and war in the Middle East.

Williams’ (Waking Lazarus, 2016, etc.) novel opens with a
rush as antiques auction-house owner and former presidential candidate Michael
Hardeman frantically, and ultimately unsuccessfully, struggles to stop his
Gulfstream jet from crashing into the Mojave Desert. Simultaneously, federal
agents raid Hollywood, California–based Hardeman Auctions, seizing boxes of documents
that might reveal a money-laundering scheme as well as other illegalities. Now
that 24-year-old Chase Hardeman’s father is dead, he must deal with this
investigation into the family business—an operation that pulls in hundreds of
millions annually from a wealthy, A-list clientele. Helping Chase to get
through these dark days are tech genius and billionaire Randall Collinsworth,
whom he calls “Uncle Randy” although they’re not related; Chase’s girlfriend,
Laney, who has “gunmetal blue eyes”; his
best friend and fellow former soldier, Dax; and his ex-lover Elena Vihkrov, a
Russian beauty. Both the crash and the raid have ties to Chase and Dax’s past
activities in Mosul, where they purchased stolen antiquities from
terrorist leader Abu Haji Fatima—“spoils of war” that eventually ended up
at Hardeman Auctions. However, betrayal soon erodes Chase’s support system,
and his life becomes as turbulent as his father’s doomed flight. Fatima’s
right-hand man, Akram Kasim, and his crew pursue Chase in a nightclub, and
although he escapes the venue, a bloodbath soon ensues. Williams delivers an
exciting, well-executed thriller. The major characters occupy a grey area
between good and bad; even Chase
admits that he and his dad were mixed up with the wrong people: “I was no Boy Scout. Sins of a father and son—committed
far more often than we ever admitted,” he reveals. The danger is palpable, and women get meaty roles as agents,
terrorists, lovers, and combinations of the three. Conversations seem
realistic, such as when Elena softly begs Chase to stay the night; after he
says that he can’t, Elena smiles coyly and
says, “She must be special.” If only Dax
would call Chase “bro” slightly less often, the book would be near-perfect.

A
highly recommended read that will make readers hope for a sequel.