This is a thriller and love story with a martial arts background. The first part is set in Brussels and other cities around Europe. The second part sees action in Hong Kong, then a return to Europe. The book spans 1979 to 1981. The sequel, Revenge of the Triad (to be published), spans the years 2009-2011.
The protagonist, Julian de Lyon is French-Chinese. He is a master of Korean "Hwarang" and an agent for a UN anti-slavery committee based in Brussels investigating the disappearance of youngsters around Europe (estimated to be 50,000 annually in 1980). Julian realises there is an unusually high proportion of girls from society families going missing and he and the Committee are soon on the trail of a syndicate that is marketing these young women through a catalogue.
Julian, his English nephew Peter and Peter's Belgian student friends Daphne and Therese become embroiled in triad and rogue CIA action from the beginning. There is action in Holland through the first pages. This continues in Brussels, Paris, Cannes, Hamburg, Marseilles and Portugal in a medieval castle.
In Part II of the book Julian returns to Hong Kong to face his past, he says to Daphne. He is still a member of the very triad (loosely based on the 14K) behind the European syndicate and catalogue. The book ends with a showdown in Hong Kong with the triad that takes place during Typhoon Joe of 1980. Julian travels to China to see his mother, then returns to Europe, the denouement of the book and to Daphne who had not given up hope of seeing him again. The story ends in the Seychelle Islands where the unexpected occurs through the final pages.
The idea of a catalogue at the time is not far-fetched. Some of the material in the book is based on real incidents. Today (2104) traffickers are using the Internet to market women and children from Asia and Eastern Europe for sexual and domestic slavery in the wealthier part of Europe."