Kirjahaku

History remembers Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as the consummate first lady, the nation's tragic widow, the tycoon's wife, and, of course, the quintessential embodiment of elegance. Her biographers, however, tend to skip over an equally important stage in her life: her almost two-decade-long career as a book editor, publishing authors as diverse as Diana Vreeland, Louis Auchincloss, George Plimpton, Dorothy West, Naguib Mahfouz, and even Michael Jackson.Greg Lawrence, who had three of his books edited by Jackie, draws from interviews with more than 125 of her former collaborators and acquaintances to examine one of the twentieth century's most enduring subjects of fascination through a new angle: her previously untouted skill in the career she chose. Away from the public eye, Jackie found fulfillment and quietly defined life on her own terms.

Palermo, Sicily, 1993. Returning home from church after her mother has failed to collect her, twelve-year-old Francesca Ambrosino discovers her parents brutally murdered. Vincent and Angelica Ambrosino were slaughtered by Vincent's employer, Cosa Nostra Godfather Salvatore "Toto" Riina, as part of a cleansing within his organization to stave off prosecution from the Italian government. Francesca flees to the home of her aunt, who places her in a Catholic girls school within a convent to protect her from her father's enemies. But in the convent, Francesca is anything but safe. After escaping to pursue her studies at the Universit degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, she exacts revenge on her tormentor. Ultimately, she migrates to America and obtains a doctorate in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania. Living alone within modest means as a curator for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Francesca is determined to create a life free of financial concern. When a famous Rembrandt painting is loaned to her museum, she hatches a foolproof plan. Logar Province, Afghanistan, July 2009. Connor Knight, a Special Forces Army Ranger, fights through an untenable combat position as he and his twelve Operational Detachment team members are under siege, outnumbered ten to one, in a tiny Afghan village. Only two of the team survive. Six years later, those survivors-Knight himself and Denton Martinez-operate a private security firm in Philadelphia. The mundane tasks of babysitting the rich are a long way from their combat tours in Afghanistan, and they, like Francesca, wrestle with their future and their past as they seek to make a more fulfilling life for themselves. When Francesca approaches Connor with her plan, danger and love intersect, and everything changes for both of them in unexpected ways as they navigate the worlds of art, forgery, and organized crime.