The King in Purgatory - Paperback

After a shady business deal craters, Travis Nelson, a successful Texas entrepreneur, fears a brutal death at the hands of his ex-partner, a ruthless drug lord. He is astonished when he is banished to a tiny abbey in northern Norway. Accustomed to an exorbitant first-class lifestyle, where he rules everyone around him, he is now compelled to live among the humble monks as one of them. Should he attempt to leave, he will be hunted down by the cartel or arrested by international authorities. The outside world, including his family, believes he died in Mexico.

Coping with this austere existence proves impossible in the early days, and he is determined to leave the backward cloister. The monastery is run by a wise old abbot, who initially sees no way the rich American business executive could ever adapt to their ways. Gradually, however, Nelson carves out a niche among the taciturn monks. He even helps them run the abbey more efficiently. After befriending the one social media savvy monk, he can contact his daughter in Texas.

Nelson strays into an amorous relationship with Astrid, a local librarian, the wife of an officious police official. Her marriage is unraveling, and her husband becomes suspicious of this "visiting professor from Canada". Nelson discovers a swindler back in the US, who has stolen cash from an old friend, is the same man who hired and fired his son, Matt. Throwing caution to the wind, he leaves the abbey and flies to the West Indies to apprehend the crook. As expected, the cartel immediately dispatches a killer to pursue him.

His cover blown, Travis is arrested and dispatched back to the US to face charges involving his prior dealings with the cartel. Life imprisonment is a certainty. He can only communicate with his family from his jail cell. Strangely, he misses Norway and longs for Astrid. The king is trapped in purgatory between heaven and hell.