Barney Amling, president of Pacific Guaranty, disappears. So do a million of the company’s dollars. Ostensibly, he has gone to Mexico City for a monetary conference, but he didn’t arrive and wasn’t expected. His wife calls in the lawyer Simon Drake (Helen Nielsen’s usual and always brilliant detective). Neither she nor Simon, who knows Barney well, can believe that he’s a thief; nor can Captain Reardon, chief of police, who is another old friend. But things don’t look good.

Simon probes into Barney’s dubious relationship with Pucci, property speculator and near-gangster, and with Verna, ex-brothel madame and nightclub owner. The trail leads to Buenos Aires, where Barney is seemingly killed in a spectacular car crash. But is he dead? The plot grows increasingly complex, the action quickens, the tension mounts …

Helen Nielsen writes as compellingly as ever; her ingenuity is matched by her readability. Her many fans have another treat in store this time.