Murder in Manila

A murder of imperial implications

Manila, 1923 - Across Asia, empire is falling out of fashion. With Revolution in the air, native populations hunger to throw off the yoke of foreign rule. For Whites accustomed to governing, the costs of empire are increasingly heavy and benefits dwindling. Nowhere is this more acutely the case than in the U.S.-governed Philippines.

The prospect of Philippine independence finds Filipino and American elites contending for power, influence, and riches. On the sidelines, Russian and Chinese interlopers jockey for the spoils. In the Malacanan Palace, meanwhile, Major General Leonard Wood, the ailing American Governor-General, is determined that the U.S. will depart only when it chooses - and on its own terms.

The vicious murder of a young Filipina prostitute in the exclusive Manila Hotel disrupts those plans. When suspicion for Tatiana Petrova's killing initially points to Wood's own son, Manila is plunged into an unprecedented political crisis. With Wood's enemies, chief among them Filipino political leader Manuel Quezon and U.S. Army Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, plotting to depose him, the task of foiling their conspiracy falls to Wood's right-hand man, Colonel Frank McCoy. With the fate of the America's Pacific Empire and the future of the Philippines hanging in the balance, the Governor-General gives McCoy his marching orders:

"Find the killer."