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Winter 1961. Bruce Cordell has had quite enough trouble in his life. With a reputation badly injured by the collapse of his investigation into a corrupt corporation, he wants to keep his head down. His life has become mundane, reduced to desk work, and complicated only by family responsibilities. That is until his boss gives him a new case. A case which means that he will have to travel to the Caribbean Island of St. Eleanor, a tiny British colony being readied for independence. There the moderate First Minister, Warwick Constantine, favourable to joining the new West Indian Federation, has died suddenly, apparently from an overdose of barbiturates. Cordell is commissioned to investigate the circumstances of his death. But from the outset it is clear that mysterious interests know of his assignment. A strange delivery to his home implies a warning. Onslow-Bell, representing the business consultancy, International Project Assessment (IPA), inveigles Cordell into agreeing to compile a short report on St. Eleanor's prospects in return for an astonishingly generous remuneration. But from the outset Cordell feels his movements are being shadowed. Soon he finds himself caught up in a toxic mix of independence politics: plantation workers find their produce 'blacked' by shipping companies at the behest of the monolithic Allied Fruits; the United States is keeping a wary eye on Castro's revolution across the Caribbean and seeks a Naval anchorage in St. Eleanor; the multinational Alpha Omega is hoping to develop a tourism complex, a proposal backed by the new First Minister, the radical and slick Bob Jamieson. But more disturbing he finds are the oleaginous Jake Oppenheimer from Government House and his own IPA contact, the suave Rufus Halliday, who soon enmesh Cordell in their own intrigues. Cordell is assisted by two new local colleagues, the irrepressible Lucy Wainwright and the blunt speaking Tim Quick. Early enquiries lead Cordell to Quentin Quillham, an expatriate writer who was the last person to see Constantine alive. Quillham throws doubt on the circumstances of the First Minister's death, highlighting his anger at Allied Fruits' behaviour and that his last professional duties had involved reading a confidential report, now unaccountably missing. Quillham's wife, Chantelle, meanwhile runs a successful arts gallery in the capital, St. Jacques, as well as hosting soirees for the island's budding artists and up and coming elite. Investigations are derailed by a mysterious phone call from a female informer warning him that Quillham's life is in danger. This soon becomes an accomplished fact and Cordell despairingly seeks out the original police investigator, Woodbine Parish. Parish's ruminations lead Cordell and Lucy to search for a low life, Julian Maddox who had dealings with both Quillham and also Constantine whom he had approached ostensibly on behalf of desperate plantation workers. The Governor, Sir Godwin Faed, intervenes, educating Cordell in some of the realities of independence and the growing significance and concerns of the Americans. An informer Geneviève Clouin, a young French assistant working with Chantelle Quillham opens up suspicions about Halliday, Jamieson and the activities of Alpha Omega. A harrowing quest for answers begins, one that uncovers a shocking tale of deceit, greed and relentless pursuit. Cordell realises that he has become a pawn in other people's games.
