Katka

Are money and love one in the same?  Is there a line that lovers can cross where love is killed?  Can you really buy a good wife through mail order?  In his new, gripping, and thoroughly original novel, Katka, Stephen Meier descends into a dark and complex world where human vice and love blend and blur in the most disturbing ways.

When Gavin and his Czech girlfriend team with her best friend Simona to set up a phony mail order bride business in the Czech Republic, Gavin gets to appear as the “big player” in the ever increasingly seedy and lucrative business of selling wives.  But, when Gavin talks the love of his life, Katka, into becoming one of the wives, in a clever double-double on the client, things don’t quite go as expected and Katka is gone.

Left with Simona, Gavin decides to carry on and make things really pay off.  He quickly positions himself as the go-to guy for exotic and beautiful European women.  As deals grow in size, and in stakes, Gavin begins to regret this dangerous life he has chosen, but he finds it impossible to just walk away.  Things begin to unravel when Gavin and Simona receive news of the death of a Czech girl, Meeka, in New York City.  Was she one of his?  Did Gavin have a role to play in this girl’s death?

Gavin’s doubts grow; the con has now become something else, something all consuming, and he finds himself thinking of Katka, her fate, and how he can undo the biggest mistake of his life.  Written in staccato prose using fluid timelines, Katka is a literary first that reads like a movie, leaving you wanting more.  This is a must read for anyone who loves noir fiction at its best.