The Tainted Trust is, in addition to a moving and action packed thriller, a brilliant depiction of what perfectly normal people will do for love and money. 

No one wept when Jim Servito died. He left an estate amounting to $325,000,000 when his wife, Karen killed him in Caracas. He had accumulated the fortune the old fashioned way: he stole it from the U.S. and Canadian Governments using a brilliant gasoline tax evasion scam. The money is hot, deposited in a Cayman Island bank, and it was cursed. It has a profound affect on everyone who touched it. It is managed by Alfred Schnieder, an aging and unscrupulous Caracas banker. 

Mike King, the love of Karen’s life, and nearly ruined by the Feds’ scorched earth efforts to recover Servito’s fortune, convinces her to keep the money, instead of returning it to its rightful owners. With the assistance of Schnieder, they form The King Trust, a near fatal mistake. Desperate to recover the money, the Feds continue to spare no expense and effort to do so. Phillip, the only child of Karen and Jim Servito, assumes he is the natural heir to his father’s fortune. He has his own greedy plans for the money. Aging Alfred Schnieder relinquishes the trust’s management to Louis Visconti, a thirty-two year old financial engineer. Dubbed ‘The Crown Prince of Wall Street’, and substantially more unscrupulous than Schnieder, Visconti takes The King Trust to bewildering heights, then 
fails, miserably. 

Kerri Pyper, Mike King’s twenty-three year old estranged daughter, has not seen or communicated with her father since she was nine. She discovers the existence of The King Trust and is shocked to learn that her natural father is its Trustee. Visconti, assuming he is the smartest man in the room, embezzles the fortune and flees to Monaco. He made only two mistakes: he deceived Schnieder and fell in love with Kerri.

Stephen Douglass's knowledge of the Oil and Gas Industry is woven into a plot similiar to John Grisham's tales of lawyers, judges, and the law. Both are terrific at storytelling at a brisk pace coming with a knowledgeable background. You will be educated as to the Oil and Gas Industry, especially the dark side of money making, and entertained by a romantic engaging action story. This book belongs in a class with "Unbroken", "Lost in Shangri-La", "In the Garden of the Beasts", other five star books that I have enjoyed this summer. (5 star review)

The story you are about to read reveals how Jim Servito destroyed the hopes and aspirations of star-crossed lovers, Mike King and Karen Taylor, while simultaneously engineering one of the largest and most audacious thefts in Canadian and U.S. history. He stole $325,000,000 from the U.S. and Canadian governments, then murdered everyone who could implicate him. He possesses a brilliant criminal mind. Cynical and remorselessly ruthless, he has an enormous contempt for the law, police, governments, and the system in which they function. He assumes rules are for fools, and takes sadistic pleasure in breaking them. 

Everything was perfect. The beautiful daughter of wealthy parents meets the handsome son of middle class parents. They fall in love and assume they will marry and live happily ever after. Their assumption could not have been further from reality. Cruel twists of fate and the wrath of Jim Servito combine to prescribe a nightmare for the two lovers, one that grows in intensity and ultimately leads them to a life and death confrontation with Servito in Caracas.