For your reading pleasure, below are chapters that did not make it into published versions of The Lion of St. Mark or The Sword of Venice or were dramatically cut. I hope you'll enjoy them. Each month, I will post another Lost Gem — an excerpt from the original manuscript that was deleted, at the publisher's request, to reduce length. For perspective, the original manuscript of The Lion of St. Mark was more than 250 pages longer than the final draft.

#1 (August 2009) — Argos (deleted from The Lion of St. Mark)