The Hell's Half Acre Chase by Daria Migounova
“Such qualities are meant to help create the world’s best citizens, but they can also be applied to entirely different situations.”
Strange place, is it not? This is St. Isidore’s Home for gifted children, introduced by author Daria Migounova in Part 1 of her St. Isidore Series, The Hell’s Half Acre Chase. We gather bits and pieces about it as the book proceeds: the way it finds its students, the names they take on under its tutelage, the vague intentions of its administrators.
A GIFTED CHILD
We learn from the outset how the young, talented Noa is sent out by the Home to a one-shot job interview with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. While it doesn’t go particularly well, he manages to hack the agency’s computers and provide them with some valuable information that their team has been struggling to find. Result: Hired!
He gravitates to breaking open a case against the Niagara Co., suspected of criminal activities on both sides of the U.S. and Canadian border relating to narcotics and firearms. But the focus quickly turns to illicit financial activity, prompted by what is referred to as The Call, an anonymous voice that seems to know the movement of markets a day before they actually take place.
Noa skirts his supervisors’ directives and sets out to infiltrate the Niagara Co. through one of its fronts: the Polar Parlor, an ice cream store on the outside run by the personable Ella, whose background and agenda are more than they seem on the surface.
Through his work, Noa eventually comes into contact with the cool, calm and suave head of the Niagara Co., Sebastian Nove. Sebastian, as it turns out, has come into possession of a newspaper that always prints one day ahead, a potential goldmine for gamblers and investors.
PRIMED FOR A SEQUEL
The book smoothly juggles two primary storylines: Noa’s hunt to take down the Niagara Co. along with the history of St. Isidore and its role in the overall plot. Migounova effortlessly keeps advancing the primary narrative all the while providing select morsels of information about St. Isidore, helping readers as they look to connect the dots.
At the end, she leaves enough doors open to entice readers to continue the saga in the upcoming sequel, The Hell’s Half Acre Trade.
With a financial background of her own, Migounova has the credentials to weave together an effective and believable story of insider trading, introducing us to compelling characters ranging from hardened agency detectives to cold-blooded criminal leaders to intriguing young geniuses.
For a fast ride up and around the Niagara region with a story that will keep you guessing, try The Hell’s Half Acre Chase. Relish in Noa’s cleverness and vulnerabilities to see if he has taken on something even larger than his youthful curiosity can conceive.
