Martin Talbot is stunned when he discovers several hidden volumes of his elderly mother's diaries which tell of her adventures as the Black Stiletto, an underground heroine who operated in the late 1950s in New York City, taking on communist spies, the Mafia, and common crooks, and he must find some way to keep her safe when an old enemy surfaces from the past.
Raymond Benson is the author of over forty published books, including The Mad, Mad Murders Of Marigold Way (winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in Mystery, 2022), Blues in the Dark (2019), In The Hush of the Night (2018) and The Secrets on Chicory Lane (2017). Raymond is most well-known for being the third—and first American—author to be commissioned to write James Bond continuation novels. Six original works and three movie novelizations were published worldwide between 1997-2002. His debut 007 novel, Zero Minus Ten, is being reprinted in the UK in 2023. Raymond’s book The James Bond Bedside Companion, first published in 1984, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America for Best Biographical/Critical Work. His most recent work in the Bond Universe is the first-ever Felix Leiter novel, The Hook and the Eye (2025).
