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ISBN 978-1-4523-4232-0
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Fact or Fiction?
This is a work of fiction, although some characters and themes are drawn from personal experience and exhaustive research.
There is a French Open tennis tournament played at Roland Garros Stadium every year in May; it’s the 2nd leg of the tennis Grand Slam;
The Basque people and the ETA are real, although the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictional;
Bouygues, Hunt and Clark are reputable construction companies, but the project to rebuild Roland Garros is fictional;
Saddlebrook Tennis Center is an excellent tennis and golf resort, but the people and events portrayed in this novel are fictional;
The four tennis players portrayed in this novel; Pete, Ambre, Lisa and Carlos are fictional; Pete is not my son, Carlos is not Nadal;
The book is narrated in the first person, so I guess I am Jim Simpson, with a couple notable differences; I don’t own a construction company & I’m not rich.
Characters
Pete Simpson is a promising junior tennis player from Tampa, Florida, on track to earn a tennis scholarship to a major college. Pete’s game and expectations soar when Ambre, the beautiful French tennis sensation begins training at the Saddlebrook Tennis Academy. Carlos Cordero, the world’s #1 ranked junior tennis player steals Ambre away from Pete, but not before Ambre and Pete’s younger sister Lisa become bitter enemies. Lisa channels her anger into tennis and vows retribution. The paths of these teenagers are destined to cross at Roland Garros Stadium, home of the French Open.
Jim Simpson, father of Pete and Lisa and husband to Mary, is a successful businessman with a rapidly expanding international construction company. Jim hires Marco Noah away from the French construction firm, Bouygues, to head up Simpson Construction. Successful projects in Mexico City and Tampa land Simpson a three billion dollar project to repair Roland Garros after the tennis stadium is severely damaged by terrorists. The huge project is on a tight timeframe and requires a joint venture with industry giants Bouygues, Hunt Construction and Clark Engineering. Jim’s best friend and CFO, Ken Reed asks Sven Johansen for financing. It is a race against time to complete the new, domed stadium, in time for next year’s French Open tennis tournament.
Agbu Galan, Carlos’ boyhood friend, becomes leader of the New ETA, the terrorist arm of the Basque Nationalist movement. Haunted by the death of his older brother Anton, who is shot by Jim Simpson during an attempted kidnapping in Mexico, Agbu swears revenge. Uncle Enrique and boyhood friends Rico, Stefano and Tito assist Agbu. Muhammad, leader of the European Al-Qaeda cell and supplier of Basque drugs, has his own agenda.
Chris Lewis, Ken Reed’s fiancé and longtime friend of Jim and Mary Simpson, is now with the CIA. She is assigned to protect the Simpson family and works with the French Police to stymie Basque and Al-Qaeda plans to blow up the newly rebuilt Roland Garros stadium. French Police Lieutenant, Georges Caron agrees to watch over Susan Peterson when she returns to Paris to help cope with the death of her husband Bill, at the hands of Basque kidnappers.