The Baku Inheritance: The City of Winds

Kennedy debuts with a transporting historical thriller set in 1890 Azerbaijan and centered on the struggle to control oil fields on the shores of the Caspian Sea. At the outset, Anton Sabroski, scion of the Sabroski family, owners of a significant number of Caspian oil fields, is near the end of a hazardous journey home from Shanghai, where a merchant instructed him to deliver a packet of documents detailing a secretive project to his father, Nikolai. When Anton arrives in Azerbaijan, he finds Nikolai on his deathbed, unable to help decipher the papers. The mystery deepens when Anton learns that the family business has gone bust, and that his inheritance consists merely of a Fabergé egg and instructions to employ an enigmatic woman named Klara at the family firm. As Anton scrambles to make sense of this turn of events while hiding secrets of his own, Standard Oil boss John Rockefeller dispatches a spy known as the Pallid Harrier to Azerbaijan for a mysterious mission. Eventually, Anton and the Pallid Harrier cross paths. Kennedy’s meticulous historical detail and unique premise set this apart. Fans of Joseph Finder out to take a look. (Self-published)