The Last Stratiote

Blood Law. It’s the foundation of all human relationships, as old as humanity itself. In the Balkans, it’s been enshrined in written code since the Middle Ages. For Elira Dukagjini, a stratiote, an Albanian mercenary who loves Shakespeare and composes blood haiku, it’s what drives her—at least until she meets James Goodman, an ICE agent pursuing the same trio of sex traffickers one explosive March night. For James, a Special Forces veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who earned a degree in philosophy on his career path, it’s not just about bringing criminals to justice. The sex traffickers have kidnapped Mirjeta Gjakova, the woman he loves, at the behest of a man he burns to pay back. For Mirjeta, a concert violinist who escaped her Balkan homeland as an orphaned teen, the strict accounting of Blood Law threatens to collect a heavy debt: her life. When Elira’s blood hunt collides with James’s pursuit of the kidnappers, what she chooses to do will change their lives forever, setting a precedent in the law governing human behavior. Complex, gritty, and brutally human, THE LAST STRATIOTE alternates between dramatic action and a challenging, richly symbolic exploration of life, religion, and philosophy. It is a story informed by the intrinsic motives underlying our desire for love, lust, revenge, healing, and redemption. “THE LAST STRATIOTE contains the relentless pace of James Patterson’s novels; the political intrigue and pragmatic characters found in Daniel Silva’s and Jeffery Archer’s books; and the historicity, philosophy, and theology of Anne Rice’s work. ... The result is a novel that conveys sensuality and eroticism that stimulate the libido and the mind.”―Lee Gooden, FIVE-STAR CLARION REVIEW "A suspenseful, high-stakes tale," KIRKUS REVIEWS