The Couturier of Milan: An Ava Lee Novel: Book 9 by Ian Hamilton
Ava attends London Fashion Week for the launch of the POE fashion line, one of the major investments she and her partners in the Three Sisters - May Ling Wong and Amanda Yee - have made during the last year. With the exponential expansion of the luxury-brand market in China, Ava and her partners are determined to see a young Chinese designer break out in Europe and North America and they go full out in London. The show is a success, but perhaps too much of one. It attracts the attention of Dominic Ventola, the principal partner in the luxury fashion conglomerate VLG. The women are invited to Milan to meet with Ventola and senior executives in his company. VLG offers to buy the Three Sisters' stake in POE. Ava and her partners decline. A few days later, POE comes under attack in the fashion media and a large part of their customer base is pressured by VLG to abandon them. Ava decides to strike back and turns to Xu for assistance, leading to a confrontation between two of the world's biggest global crime syndicates: the Camorra and the Triad.