Stephen Desberg – författare

A shadow from his past stalks the Scorpion-but is it from an angel...or a devil? The iron fist of Trebaldi's monks is still strangling Rome, but such an army is expensive. To pay his men before their loyalty begins to slip, the Pope must rely on the financial assistance of European monarchs-and a large sum in gold is coming to Rome. But such a convoy is tempting to many! Trebaldi, the Nine Families, thieves and conspirators...And all figure they can use the Scorpion against each other to obtain what they want.

Is the reign of terror that grips Rome about to end? One by one, the Pope's warrior monks fall to the Scorpion's blade or desert their master. Feeling his enemy circling ever closer, Trebaldi grows desperate and hires Rome's best paid assassins to go after him-and whomever else stands in his way. As the women in his life choose their destinies, an old enemy reappears to plague the Scorpion...or perhaps to bring him the truth at last, hidden behind his mask.

The truth at last-who is the Scorpion's father? The mysterious scarred man who was dogging the Scorpion's footsteps took him away from his confrontation with Trebaldi, promising to take him to his father. Forced to follow but eager to know at last, Armando doesn't resist. Meanwhile, the Pope resorts to desperate measures to make up his monks' losses. Old enemies, new ones...Conspiracies and lies...Fifteen centuries of conflicts and plots come to a head as the truth is revealed at last, shattering all certainties and leaving many dead...

Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service), the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States, which has every technological method at his disposal to link high finance and high crime. Max unravels the financial and logistical organisations which supports a huge drugs operation between Mexico and the US. In the process, though, the lines between legality and providing jobs for thousands of people, between prosperity and morals become blurred. This two-volume book includes "Narcocracy".

Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service), the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States, which has every technological method at its disposal to investigate possible links between high finance and high crime. Max investigates two seemingly-unconnected murders. The former president of an Asian country, who was accused of embezzlement, is bumped off in France. Meanwhile, the right-hand man of a corrupt US mayor meets a grizzly end in the Californian desert. Max finds a strange message stating Silicia, 10 am, Ocean Drive and tries to figure out what it all means. Meanwhile, a mysterious young lady seems to be one step ahead of him and erasing one clue after the other.

Betrayed by the beautiful Ansea Latal, the Scorpion has been captured by the Turks. But he cannot afford to tarry: Rochnan and his monks are close on his tail, Ansea is on her way to Cappadocia to find the true cross of Saint Peter, and, back in Rome, Trebaldi is preparing his reign of terror. As a prisoner or a fugitive, alone or in the reluctant company of people who have sworn his death, the Scorpion will have to reach Karabas before the agents of the Nine Families and discover the truth hidden deep inside the Holy Valley.

Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service), the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States, with every technological method at his disposal to link high finance and high crime. Max investigates Silicia, Inc., a mysterious company fronting the activities of a beautiful and deadly assassin. For $2.5 million per contract, the killer leaves a trail of bodies and corruption behind her. As the I.R.$. agent closes in on his target, the scale of her web becomes frighteningly clear - and things take an unpleasantly personal turn for Max.

On the run from both agents of the Vatican and Ottoman authorities, the Scorpion is forced into uneasy alliances to continue his quest. Riding towards the Holy Land, the motley band begins to unravel the secrets of the Templars. But as loyalties shift, a confrontation looms, and in the shadow of an inverted cross, a forgotten truth will resurface that could destroy Trebaldi's power -

There are bad memories in Larry Max's past. Dark figures specialised in shady dealings that once bullied and defeated the young, novice IRS agent. He never forgot, though. And now those names are coming up again in relation to some relatively minor trading fraud. But when Larry begins unravelling the threads, from Texas to Azerbaijan, what he discovers is anything but minor: secrets that could make a select few immensely rich - and set the world ablaze.

Is the world barrelling towards the apocalypse? Russian commandoes are positioned around Georgia and its vital pipelines, fanatical terrorists are bent on eliminating Saudi Arabia's reigning family...With oil barons indifferent to the potential damage their stock market manipulations could cause, only one man stands against a scheme of utter cynicism: Larry B. Max. This time, the IRS agent intends to stop his sworn enemy Madsen for good-and rescue the woman he's loved for so long, Kate.

Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the IRS, the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States. Reading into tax-evasion and money-laundering rings the way a virtuoso pianist would read Mozart, Max has every technological method at his disposal to find links between high finance and high crime. In this first volume, he looks into a particularly delicate file: a rich Jewish-American known for his involvement in recovering items that had been confiscated by the Nazis. Where does this billionaire's fortune come from?

Rome the beautiful is dying, the symbol of civilization falling, the empire burning. Hidden from massacres and looting, a strange meeting is held by nine families who share the Roman Empire. To retain their power, they decide to support a new religion - Christianity - as well as its representative, the pope. But who are these 9 mysterious families? Later, much later, it's the Renaissance. Christianity prospers. A brigand called 'the Scorpion' makes a living by unearthing relics in the depths of the Roman catacombs, which he sells at high prices to princes and bishops. Trebaldi, a powerful cardinal, takes an interest in this Scorpion, who is either a creature of the devil or a witness to a cursed era who must disappear. This two-volume book includes "The Pope's Secret ".

The Scorpion, whose mother Cardinal Trebaldi burnt at the stake for loving a man of the cloth, discovers that his father was the murdered Pope himself. When Trebaldi addresses a huge crowd at the end of the mourning period, the Scorpion is there to tell the truth about how the people's beloved Pope died. Trebaldi claims that the sacred cross of St Peter miraculously appeared in his castle. The Scorpion must find the real cross if he is to prove Trebaldi's treachery.