Flat Light Paperback – July 9, 2021

In 1987, two of East Germany's intelligence officers realize their socialist state is near collapse. They embezzle state funds, defect to the West, and set about taking revenge on America. The murders they patiently plot rely on lavish funding, exotic talents, and--most of all--a twenty-five-year head start.Also in 1987, a young man far away leaves humble circumstances and begins learning world-class assassination skills. His teacher is none other than Jacob Leach, who even in his advanced years still ranks among the world's deadliest men.In election year 2012, the young man's extraordinary ability will confront the two East Germans’ invincible plan.-----The story begins in socialist Montshire, which is both New England's second-largest state and America's poorest state. There a failing ski resort called Stumpy Runs operates its fabled Pole Buster ski trail. One day it draws a pretty blonde skiing alone. Three elite French soldiers are skiing then, too, but almost nobody else is. It’s brutally cold that day.When the Frenchmen assault the blonde, a young lift attendant named Ben Montgomery intervenes. He has basic martial arts skills learned from his late grandfather. Soon two of the goons lie unconscious in the snow, but the third one almost kills Ben.Ben lives because of the blonde. She draws a tiny .22 caliber pistol and shoots the hulking Frenchman in the shoulder from twenty-five yards. She calmly walks toward him, firing her last five shots to wound rather than to kill. The enraged Frenchman lumbers her way, murder in his eyes. She finishes him off with a well-placed kick before rushing to help Ben.The blonde is Shannon Wilcox, who has powerful friends. For Ben Montgomery, 1987 is about to become a very good year.That same day inside East Germany, state security officers Ludwig Ernst and Otto Strempf meet secretly. Strempf has diverted government funds to finance the two men’s defection to the West. There, with their wives and young sons, they’ll patiently take revenge on America for East Germany’s imminent demise.Ernst goes first. One snowy night, he crosses an East German border minefield and surrenders to what might be NATO’s tiniest contingent---two very cold, very junior enlisted men in a small truck. They eagerly take Ernst to their headquarters. That way they all can get warm sooner.Ernst negotiates a deal that brings Otto Strempf, the men’s two wives, and their two sons to the West. It helps Ernst that Otto Strempf is a very big fish, as Cold War defectors go. For the Strempfs and Ernsts, 1987 is about to become a very good year.The former East Germans buy a drab ski lodge in Montshire. They become model citizens, improve their facility, and furtively prepare for really big kills in 2012. Small kills will occur along the way and the two little boys will turn into monsters.Ben Montgomery and a young woman lawyer will fall deeply in love, somewhere in the heart of pristine Idaho ski country and start a family. Meanwhile, a seventy-something widow in dreary Montshire will doggedly struggle to save her widowed, childhood sweetheart from becoming a lonely curmudgeon.We think it’s an uncommonly good story. Flat Light’s Randall Jarmon’s only ski novel so far. It therefore seems perfect for winter reading, but we can also highly recommend it for the beach. A story that transports you to ski country might take your mind off oppressively hot weather, right?Mikvelk Publishing, LLCCoppell, Texas USA Read more