The Scarlatti Inheritance

The Scarlatti Inheritance is the first of 25 thriller novels published by American author Robert Ludlum.

Plot summary

In Washington during World War II, word is received that an elite member of the Nazi High Command is willing to defect and divulge information that will shorten the war. But his defection entails the release of the ultra-top-secret file on the Scarlatti Inheritance— a file whose contents will destroy many of the Western world's greatest and most illustrious reputations if they are made known. From there, the book takes itself back a few decades, and tells the story of a corrupt American soldier, his billionaire tyrant mother, and an agent working for one of the smallest secret service departments in the world.