With a background of intrigue, corruption and tax avoidance, this
intricate novel is set against events in the early 1980s in Britain's
Hong Kong, the Manila of Marcos and Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.
A young publisher travelling through the East on business is confronted
with personal greed, kleptocracy, espionage and murder as matters move,
Eric Ambler style, out of his control.
In Hong Kong, still British at that time, he first meets Jimmy Chan - a
ruthless operator he is supposed to do business with - whose tentacles
reach far and wide and prove tricky to escape.
A side trip to the Philippines affords him no respite and his contact
with the corruption of the Marcos regime only serves to make life more
unpleasant as developments take a sinister turn.
His brief time in Singapore does not offer the expected relief of a safe
haven and the return to Hong Kong sees fresh trouble for him and his
associates as the various strands of the plot come together in twists
and turns.
In this fast-paced story, an ordinary man, confronted with shady and
unsavory characters, becomes accidentally involved with villains in
business and government in three different locations who operate
according to a different moral code from his own.
