Patsy Hand

Lost Dogs of Rome Patsy Hand

International art courier Francesca Baltimore is beaten and robbed of a case holding Victorian jewelry in Heathrow. As she heals she is desperate to regain the trust of her old clients. Late one night, she is offered a job that comes with far more dangerous ramifications than anything she has ever attempted. She has five days to rescue an idealistic boy who has fled to Rome and is now trapped in a looming battle between a radical animal rights group and a brutal Italian businessman with a history of illegal activities. The fifteen-year-old boy is her grandson, Will, who doesn't know she exists. For the first time, she isn't confident in her own ability to rescue anyone, particularly when lives might be at stake. But it is her old nemesis, a U. S. senator, who raised Francesca's son Jack, taking the boy when Francesca was young and vulnerable, who calls in old debts, demanding Francesca find Will and bring him home before social media or the press gets wind of the story ending the senator's looming bid for a third term. The rescue becomes more complicated when Francesca has to face her grown son's anger, and when she hooks up with a wayward priest fighting his own struggle for retribution. She quickly discovers that Will, being somewhat like her younger self has no intention of leaving before the fight begins.