Wed., Aug. 2, noon-1:30 p.m., free, Ardmore Paperback Book Shop, 14 W. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, 610-649-4888; Wed., Aug. 2, 7:30 p.m., free, Barnes & Noble, 720 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, 610-520-0355

Author and expatriate international banker Charles Epping is on a mission: to reunite Jews with their money.

What sounds like the dull thud of a racist joke is actually a fast-paced DaVinci Code-style caper. Epping's first work of fiction, Trust, concerns Treuhand Swiss bank accounts established just before WWII on behalf of European Jews who feared the Third Reich would invade and seize their money. Trust supposes that some of these accounts have been maintained well enough to be worth billions today.

True to life, Epping is using his book tour to learn more about these accounts; now, he brings his sleuthing skills to Philadelphia, a city with its own storied banking history.

It's time to start working my second novel, and I'm trying out different story lines. One of them has my main character ending up on the East Coast. Philadelphia might be the venue.

In college, my roommates were all from the Main Line area, and I'd go home with them over long holiday weekends. My friends' families would tell stories about the less-than-100-percent-clean way Philadelphia was governed. It's the idea that politicians and business people can be corrupted.

When you think back in the early years of the United States, Philadelphia had a lot of banking and trade. Ports -- like New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia -- were all big money centers. Wherever you have a lot of money sitting around, that's when things start getting interesting.