To Live and Die in the Floating World

An easy job on a tourist barge turns into a dangerous game to stay alive. Drunk, broke and in hiding, American Kip Weston runs into an acquaintance in a run-down bar in Paris who tells him about a job opening on a small tourist barge operating on the canals of Burgundy.With nothing to lose, Kip decides to take the job only to discover one of the guests is Mr. Carbonne, a dangerous mob boss from Marseilles who arrives with his much younger mistress, Brigitte, and several bodyguards in tow. Soon, Kip and Brigitte undertake a surreptitious love affair that, if discovered, could prove fatal for them both. As the tension on board ratchets up, a terrified Brigitte agrees to flee with Kip. But Kip’s trust in his lover quickly erodes as more of her past is revealed. And, he keeps looking over his shoulder wondering how long it will be before his own past catches up to him.

A native Oregonian, Stephen Holgate 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 one-man play, as well as publishing innumerable freelance articles. Following Tangier, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka, To Live and Die in the Floating World is Holgate's fourth novel.