Phillip Kerr， a bestselling author in his native U.K.， has been called "Michael Crichton s smarter brother" due to his wide-ranging intelligence and technical knowledge. Dave Delano， the protagonist of this lively thriller， is an American who s educated himself in prison--serving a sentence for a manslaughter he didn t commit. Newly fluent in Russian， he s intrigued by the idea of redistributing wealth， particularly the Mafia s. His plan is to hijack a transatlantic transport ferry/yacht being used to smuggle drug money and to divert the dollars into his very own bank in the former Soviet Union. It all seems flawless until he meets another Grand Duke passenger who s looking to score: Kate Fury， a gorgeous FBI agent who s been tracking cocaine from Colombia to Miami to the European playgrounds of the rich and expecting the biggest collar of her career. What happens when they cross paths is the stuff of a funny， violent， and oddly romantic caper. The plot twists fast enough to satisfy even die-hard Elmore Leonard fans and turns on double dealing， false identities， and misunderstood motives， without letting the humor get in the way of the action. --Jane Adams