Words: 63,500
Treasure Seekers is a novel in which actual events and real people are woven together with fictitious conversations and uses storytelling techniques of fiction. It also contains innovative elements from other literary genres, as journalism, history, drama, satire, spy thriller, and romance. An inclusion of maps and photos are integrated into the narrative to highlight and verify up-to-date politics. Under the guise of fiction, Treasure Seekers reveals facts that are rocking the political world. Not about China or Russia, but about the American government’s questionable involvement with Turkey and Iran.
In late 2018, the President of Turkey had phoned President Trump with an unusual request: to release one of his citizens, Reza Zarrab, from a Manhattan jail. The gold trader was accused of being at the center of a sanctions-evasion scheme, Gas-for-Gold, to launder $10 billion in gold for Turkey and Iran. Assisting these leaders to extradite the gold launderer is a cast of true characters: American politicians, very well known, who have worked secretly with several leaders of countries, maybe less well known like Nicolae Ceausescu, dictator of Romania for 24 years – now deceased, and Ayatollah Akbar Rafsanjani – the richest man in Iran, also deceased. But in Treasure Seekers, their crimes are resurrected and used as the source for this political thriller.
The underlying question of the factual inclusions in the novel is what does Reza Zarrab, the accused criminal, know about the President of Turkey to get him out of jail? And where did the leaders of Iran and Turkey, as well as their gold launderer, Reza Zarrab, get billions in gold to begin their Gas-for-Gold scheme?
The answers are found through the eyes of the fictional protagonists, Marina and Cristina. As amateur investigators, the life-long friends since their teenaged years in Transylvania, travel from New York City and Paris to Istanbul to learn more about a web of crime among today’s leaders. In doing so, they risk their lives when they are taken as hostages and hidden in Istanbul’s catacombs.
Their friendship only becomes stronger as they remember that their Romanian leader, Ceausescu, had traveled to Tehran three days before he was executed on Christmas day 1989, with suitcases filled with gold. This gold had never been claimed, never found. Treasure Seekers is exploding with crime, passion, sex, romance, and a love story. But above all, it is uncovering political TRUTHS.
Treasure Seekers is part of TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY where political truths are presented by mixing real people with fictional characters. The facts are heightened by fiction and the fiction is electrified with facts. It is a different voice, another narrative style where current events are presented in a new literary style Treasure Seekers is a visual canvas that takes the reader into a kaleidoscope of exotic colors set in Turkey, Iran and Romania, where secrets are little known and are waiting to be discovered.
Readers’ Favorite has reviewed and praised it:
I thought that Treasure Seekers by Roberta Seret was such a unique way of telling a story. I loved how she mixes non-fiction with fiction. I loved that she even shares links to help you follow the case in more detail. There are some sex and rape scenes, but nothing too graphic. I admit that I was not sure about one of the characters. I was happy to find out I was wrong. I love that. The world-building is breathtaking; it made me wish I could visit those places someday. I liked that Roberta explained what was a real story and what was not at the end of the book. Roberta even gave you more articles to read. Usually, books like these take me a while to read but I read it in less than a day. I literally could not put the book down, it was just so action-packed. If you love spy thrillers or any government thrillers, this is a must-read…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozzart – Rondo Alla Turca from Piano Sonata No. 11