Five million dollars in gold will buy fifty-three Stinger missiles, which may be for the IRA but might have more to do with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Or that kind of money will buy retirement for the man hired to sail it from Morocco to Miami - if, that is, he can outwit the IRA, CIA, British Intelligence, infamous Palestinian terrorist il Hayaween, and the ghost of his lost love Roisin.

For Boston-Irish Paul Shanahan, part-time marine surveyor, IRA arms dealer and suspected CIA agent, is a full-time scoundrel. But so is everyone else in the lethal world of terrorism, where even gold can't be trusted ...