David E. Grogan - Sapphire Pavilion - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Steve Stilwell’s former Navy JAG Corps buddy Ric Stokes has been jailed for possession of heroin in Vietnam. He was found in the same room with his traveling companion Ryan Eversall, dead of an overdose and in the company of a prostitute. Steve knows his friend is a straight arrow. Was he set up? If so, for what reason? Steve travels to Ho Chi Minh City in search of the truth. In no time Steve is targeted by the people who framed his friend. A beautiful young American businesswoman insinuates her way into the case. Can she really help, or is she just a dangerous distraction? Ric and Ryan came to Vietnam in search of an Air Force transport plane that disappeared in 1968. The pilot was Ryan’s father. Before the heroin bust, they had located the wreckage. Ryan’s notebook, which Steve manages to obtain, spells out the exact location. Ryan’s widow has given Steve’s associate Casey another piece of valuable evidence, a file labeled “Sapphire Pavilion.” Someone is willing to go to any lengths to steal both the notebook and the file. From Virginia and Texas to DC and Vietnam, powerful, all-seeing forces with unlimited resources are determined to bury the truth about Sapphire Pavilion. But they have grossly underestimated Steve Stilwell and his associate Casey, a former Army pilot who lost her leg in a helo accident. And the ability to inspire loyalty wherever you go can come in handy when danger lurks behind every corner.



My Review

Why does a man always seem to lose his head when it comes to a beautiful woman?

Attorney Steve Stilwell should know better.

One, he's married. And two, he's investigating a politically sensitive case in Vietnam. But when a femme fatale wanders over to his table, asking if she can join him for dinner, instead of saying no—like he should—he takes her up on her offer. Beguiled by her charm, he discloses way too much information about the case and things quickly escalate from there, culminating at his hotel later that night with an unwanted kiss. Before leaving, a chill goes down his spine when she whispers to him, "We're not in Virginia anymore, Steve. This is the Third World. There are no bright lines between good and evil. Everything is a shade of gray."

Making a mad dash for the airport, he arrives back in the United States, and breathes a sigh of relief, thinking that he got away from her…until she shows up at his office uninvited. And this time, she has a stack of secretly-taken photos that she's threatening to show his wife of the two of them, unless he surrenders a key piece of evidence to her. Succumbing to her pretty face in Vietnam has now put Steve in a very compromising position, and he's forced to make a life-altering choice.

And he chooses his professional integrity over his marriage.

When his wife confronts him after viewing the photos, her reaction is gut wrenching. "Her eyes had an intensity about them; Steve felt them probe deep inside him, searching for something like evidence of innocence lost. They made him feel distant from her."

Because in that moment, he knows that he's lost her.

It's disturbing to watch their marriage disintegrate in such a painful way. She knows that she's just not that important to him, and he knows that he failed her as a husband. He didn't even sleep with the woman in Vietnam, but he didn't have to. He always said he'd work on his marriage down the road, but he never did. His job always came first, and when he wins the case that cost him so much, he realizes it's all he has left in his life.

Throughout his life, he's learned how to talk a good game, but his actions never backed up his words. He took advantage of his wife's trust. He used her generosity. And now he's afraid she's going to discover that she's better off without him. He hates that he let the one person he actually loved get crowded out of his life.

It's a brutal lesson for him to have to learn, but it's one that's truthfully told.

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Sapphire Pavilion can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Prices/Formats: ebook, $15.95 paperback
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Pages: 280
Release: May 1, 2017
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603816038
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About the Author

David E. Grogan was born in Rome, New York, and was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from the College of William & Mary in Virginia with a B.B.A. in Accounting, he began working for the accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co., in Houston, Texas, as a Certified Public Accountant. He left Arthur Andersen in 1984 to attend the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia, graduating in 1987. He earned his Masters in International Law from The George Washington University Law School and is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Grogan served on active duty in the United States Navy for over 26 years as a Navy Judge Advocate. He is now retired, but during the course of his Navy career, he prosecuted and defended court-martial cases, traveled to capitals around the world, lived abroad in Japan, Cuba and Bahrain, and deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf onboard the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. His experiences abroad and during the course of his career influence every aspect of his writing. Sapphire Pavilion is his second novel. His first was The Siegel Dispositions.

Grogan’s current home is in Savoy, Illinois, where he lives with his wife of 33 years and their dog, Marley. He has three children.

Links to connect with David:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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