The Villiers Touch

By Brian Garfield

An unscrupulous businessman targets a family chemical company.

Though his business cards read 'Mason Villiers,' that is not his name. His respectable lower-middle-class upbringing -- with its innocent stories of hot rods and prom queens -- is a lie. Though an expert on finance, he has no formal education. The man who calls himself Mason Villiers was raised on the streets of Chicago's rough South Side, and once he clawed himself out of the gutter he decided no one should know where he came from. His past doesn't matter. Villiers is headed for the top, no matter how many throats he must cut along the way.

Having made a name for himself in swashbuckling business dealings, Villiers plans a hostile takeover of a family-owned chemical company. Although Melbard Chemical's stock hovers at rock bottom, Villiers makes an astronomical offer. Melbard Chemical has a valuable secret, and there is no one more ready to exploit it than Villiers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784084561

Brian Garfield

The author of more than seventy books, Brian Garfield (1939–2018) is one of the country’s most prolific writers of thrillers, westerns, and other genre fiction. Raised in Arizona, Garfield found success at an early age, publishing his first novel when he was only eighteen. After time in the army, a few years touring with a jazz band, and earning an MA from the University of Arizona, he settled into writing full-time.   Garfield served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and the Western Writers of America, the only author to have held both offices. Nineteen of his novels have been made into films, including Death Wish (1972), The Last Hard Men (1976), and Hopscotch (1975), for which he wrote the screenplay. To date, his novels have sold over twenty million copies worldwide.