James Twining Books In Order

Publication Order of Tom Kirk Books

James Twining is an English author of mystery and thriller novels. Born in London, he spent most of his childhood in France after his family relocated to Paris when he was four. Upon his return to the United Kingdom aged eleven, he attended Merchant Taylor’s School, eventually securing a place to Christ Church in Oxford where he studied French Literature and Linguistics and graduated with a first class honors in 1995. The author’s early career was spent in the business world. His first job was in the Corporate Finance Department of SBC Warburg (today is known as UBS) where he focused on hostile bids and defenses and, leveraged buyouts.

In 1999, Twining setup an e-procurement business known as Group Trade with a friend. However, the business was later sold to another businessperson later in 2002. Twining and his co-founder were named as one of 8 “Best of Young British” businesspeople in The New Statesman.

Twining began writing thriller books in 2003, and his first book was The Double Eagle and was signed up by Curtis Brown, published by Harper Collins in the UK and published in the United States in 2005.

The sequels to The Double Eagle featuring the main character, Tom Kirk, The Black Sun, Gilded Seal & The Geneva Deception were published in 2006, 08, and 09 respectively. All the four books feature professional thief, Tom Kirk are set in the art underworld.

The Double Eagle

The Double Eagle is the first book in Tom Kirk series by James Twining. Somehow, someone has infiltrated Fort Knox and stole five of the last remaining Double Eagles- $20 gold coins destroyed by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Now, one of the coins has resurfaced during an body examination in Paris France – in the belly of a murdered priest.

The disgraced FBI agent wants to recover the valuable coins if she needs to revive her dying career. Her investigation is pointing her towards Tom Kirk, an intelligent professional art thief who wants to quit the game. However, Kirk’s chances for freedom and possibly survival are to find the missing gold coins. He joins Browne, an unlikely ally in adventurous races across the world and into the heart of a deadly and shocking conspiracy powered by greed, power, and death.

The Double Eagle is an excellent premise with a good pacing and a good plot and an excellent read for those who like crime thrillers books.

The Black Sun

In Maryland, a dangerous gang makes its way into the Cryptologic Museum and manages to steal a Nazi machine. On the other hand in London hospital, a concentration camp survivor is killed in his bed, and the killers manage to flee off with a macabre trophy- the survivor severed a left arm. In Prague, a priceless painting is stolen from the synagogue. Could there be a connection between these three thefts from different parts of the world?

When a retired professional art thief Tom is asked to investigate, the Prague theft seems not exciting enough- until the stole painting turns up alongside the severed human arm. As Tom examines deep into the past, both items (the painting and the arm) appear to be an elaborate trail of clues left behind in the last days of the Third Reich by a secret order of SS knights. Clues that only stretch from Idaho to the cold streets of St. Petersburg and finally to lead to a famed treasure in the ashes of war.

Steered on by the ghosts from his past, the vicious light of the Black Sun emblem, and the lethal manipulation of a cruel enemy, Tom finds himself entangled in a situation where the highest prize of all is life- and not only his life. The Black Sun is a furiously captivating second series installment, full of plot twists, double crosses, and scenes of escapes and near death misses. The primary focus of this story is the search for Amber Room which apparently vanished at the end of the WWII as the Nazi tried to hide a train full of stolen valuables from a concentration camps. The story involves the race across Russia, Europe involving Neo-Nazis; puzzles and clues scattered throughout paintings, churches and hidden vaults and the characters being a former art thief, government officials, and gangsters.

The Gilded Seal

Determined to revenge for his friend’s murder, the former art thief Tom Kirk abandon his investigation the theft of a valuable Da Vinci and starts his investigation into the brutal killing. The evidence he encounters points to an old enemy with some sadistic whom Tom discovers is planning to carry out one of the most audacious heists in history.

The Geneva Deception

For Lieutenant Allegra Damico, the killing of a mafia enforcer provides an opportunity to jump start her career. However, when the body of an authoritative figure at a Vatican-backed bank is found dead under similar circumstances, it becomes clear that the killings are indeed the opening shots of the war.

The former art thief Tom Kirk agreed to aid the FBI to recover a priceless Caravaggio that was stolen four decades ago by his former partner Jenifer. However, a handover in Las Vegas goes wrong as Jenifer is shot dead by a sniper. Tom is accused of being involved in the murder, and thus he escapes to Italy to try to get to investigate this problem.

While in Italy he meets with Allegra, investigating the murder of the mafia enforcer, and also that of the senior official at a Vatican backed bank and it soon becomes clear that the two deaths are connected. Allegra and Tom’s team up and soon find themselves caught in a dangerous conspiracy where antiquities are stolen and sold through a major auction in the black market. But the question that they have to puzzle out is who is involved with whom? Who is against whom? To survive and revenge, Tom will have to make use of all his skills acquired during his career as a thief and also working for the FBI.

The Geneva Deception is a fast-paced thriller featuring well-crafted characters and a plot that guarantee to capture readers’ attention to the last.