China’s highest military officer, General Lin Bogang, has his eye on forcing the government into naming him the country’s new leader. And there’s a strong likelihood he might succeed, thanks to a museum worker’s discovery of never before seen documents written by Mao Zedong. Lost for nearly half a century, the revelations contained within hold a secret that the founder of modern-day China took to his grave. But there’s one major problem – the General only has a copy of the documents, and everyone knows copies can be forged. Without the originals, no one will believe him. But before that could be done the worker who took them from the museum, and the only person who knew their whereabouts, was brutally killed. Complicating matters even more for the General, the Chinese and United States governments have also learned of what he’s after, and they want it! Soon there’s a discovery that an alcoholic ex-Army Ranger named Matt Moretti, a U.S. government archivist, may hold the key to the location of the missing documents. Not long after that the Archivist is running for his life as he tries to stay alive while, at the same time, putting together the clues he knows will eventually lead him to Mao’s secret.

Above is a description of my first fiction book, The Archivist, soon to be published by iUniverse, a division of Penguin Random House.

Alan Refkin