The Charlemagne Files Series

It was the moment of disaster when silence gives the boundary between peace and violence. Alexandra Dolnikov is a twenty-year-old chemistry major at a Chicago university who might, if she works hard, graduate by 1974. She struggles to get along at home and thinks she has figured out how to manage work, school, and a tiny apartment, all on her own, until her parish priest asks a favor. She cannot refuse, though she doubts the missing icon he is looking for could be miraculous and is sure her intervention will fail. While fulfilling her promise to the priest, she meets a captivating man who draws her ever deeper into a world of secrets she did not know existed. That it is also a world of violence and treachery becomes ever more clear to her as she learns the costs of her smallest decisions. As she searches for what may or may not be a miraculous icon, Alex becomes the bait in a plan to stop a deadly terrorist attack. Her life depends now on Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by Western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints, and they are every bit as dangerous as their targets. Trinity Icon is the first novel in K.A. Bachus’s fast-paced Charlemagne Files series chronicling the lives of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over three decades.

"After investigation came retribution, vindictive and indiscriminate." It’s the early 1980’s and the height of the Cold War when Steve Donovan, despite a checkered past, troubled marriage and no prospects, lands a job at the very bottom of the intelligence world. He finds a kind of happiness being involved with shady people in unsavory activities until he is suddenly promoted over the heads of fifty-nine colleagues by his Section chief, who is himself being promoted. Steve’s boss Frank is handing him the responsibility for Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. The deadly team has filled several drawers at a Chicago morgue and Steve and Frank fly out to investigate why. With three days left until Christmas, their investigation uncovers tragedies, past, present and perhaps, yet to come in their own futures. Frank appears to be the next target, but is Steve as well? It is difficult to tell, because truth is hard to come by and deception obscures everything and everyone they speak to. Loyalties are hidden, moral codes nonexistent. Can Steve convince Charlemagne not to kill his boss without putting himself likewise in the crosshairs of their revenge? And just how far is he willing to go the save the innocent? Cetus Wedge is the second book in the series titled The Charlemagne Files, which chronicles the lives of the members of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over a span of three decades.

“I’ve never known Mack to make a threat he was not prepared to carry out,” I said carefully. “He doesn’t bluff.” Frank Cardova provides logistic support for a highly effective team of deadly operatives known as Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. Mack, the team’s knife-wielding leader, and his son Charlie arrive on Frank’s doorstep bringing chaos, terror and violence with them. The last thing Frank ever wants to see is Louis, the volatile marksman of the team, anywhere near his home, let along sitting at the kitchen table drinking a martini meant for him and flirting with his wife. For Frank, the men of Charlemagne have become the ultimate houseguests from hell. Mack offers Frank’s subordinate, Steve Donovan, a chance to join the team after the fallout of a recent disaster puts his young family at risk. As Frank watches Steve turn into a killer and his own wife and daughter discover what his thirty-year career has been all about, he helps the team save the lives of Steve’s family while dreading the danger to his own. Brevet Wedge is the third book in K.A. Bachus’s unflinching Charlemagne Files series. Can Frank trust anyone in his immediate circle?

I wondered what crime a professional killer could commit that his closest friends would find unforgivable. It is the mid 1980’s and Barbara Kemp shatters another glass ceiling as she becomes the US babysitter for Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. She arrives in-country for her first assignment in support of an allied government. An American officer is being used as bait to lure a deep cover IRA explosives expert into the light where Charlemagne will eliminate him — if they do not annihilate each other first. Barbara must deal with a mystifying lunacy in the dangerous men around her while she struggles to find a way to save the American bait, the operation, and the team itself. Lion Tamer is the fourth book in K.A. Bachus’s unflinching Charlemagne Files series. Will this promotion be the end of Barbara’s career? Or the end of her life?