Kondor

Jane M. Wilson is a Toronto-based chartered financial analyst in the
investment business.

Kondor is an intelligent adventure story combining history, the
automobile and advertising industries, and corporate and international
hugger-mugger.

Dorner Automobile, a company risen from the ashes of postwar Germany
but now ailing, has pinned its hopes on the launch of its Kondor minivan
in the U.S. When his computer and his trusted assistant disappear
together, Kristian Pieper, division head and son of the firm’s
original master designer, first suspects industrial espionage. Then a
box of crumbling documents strangely affects his father’s behavior,
but his violent death prevents any explanation. Soon Kristian is blindly
seeking answers, unaware that the truth may jeopardize international
loans and the future of the company and of its employees worldwide.
Meanwhile, other forces are determined to conceal both sedition and
moldering secrets in the company’s heritage.

Although several astonishing leaps of logic in the plot may irritate
readers who try to solve the puzzle in advance, they do keep the action
moving. Kondor is eloquently written, and offers satisfying suspense as
well as some intriguing moral questions. Gregory Ward’s two previous
thrillers are The Carpet King (1991) and Water Damage (1993).