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Blank Slate Press, an imprint of Amphorae Publishing Group, announces Tangier, written by Stephen Holgate, will be published May 30, 2017. Tangier is available for pre-order at retailers and online in paperback for $16.95 and as an e-book for $9.99. Tangier is a story of fathers and sons, the alienation of being a stranger in a strange land, the seductive face of betrayal, and finally, the lengths we’ll go to for redemption.

Christopher Chaffee has lost his prestige, his powerful government position—and the sure knowledge that his father died in prison during WWII. Prompted by his mother’s pleading, and in the unique position of having little left to lose, he embarks on a journey to Tangier, Morocco, a city of spies, secrets, subtleties, and his father’s last known location. Here, Christopher Chaffee hopes to find the truth of his father’s past, and, ultimately, a deeper truth about himself.

Stephen Holgate’s unforgettable debut novel, Tangier, delves into the intertwined lives of Christopher and his father, French diplomat Rene Laurent. A tale of danger and mystery, betrayal and redemption, Tangier presents the remarkable journey of a father and his son told in parallel stories set fifty years apart: one a mystery; the other a spy story. In the first, Chaffee, a disgraced Washington power-broker, travels down the narrow lanes and twisted souls of Tangier’s ancient medina in search of the father he has never known, a French diplomat, who died in a Vichy prison in 1944 (or so he had always believed).

In the second story, his father, Rene Laurent, fights to maintain his soul—and his life—in the snake pit of wartime Tangier. These two stories slowly intertwine as Christopher unwraps the mystery of his father’s fate, and Laurent gets caught up in the intrigue of opposing espionage webs—and caught up, too, in the arms of a woman he knows he shouldn’t trust.

Holgate is a fifth-generation Oregonian who served for four years as a diplomat with the American Embassy in Morocco. In addition to his other foreign service posts, Mr. Holgate has served as a
congressional staffer; headed a committee staff of the Oregon State Senate; managed two electoral campaigns; acted with the national tour of an improvisational theater group; worked as a crew member of a barge on the canals of France; and lived in a tent while working as a gardener in Malibu. Holgate has published several short stories and a successfully produced a one-man play, as well as publishing innumerable freelance articles. Tangier is his first novel.