Paul Shanahan - part-time surveyor, erstwhile IRA arms dealer and sometime suspected CIA agent - is a full-time scoundrel. But he's the perfect man if you need an illicit operation done - and done well.

So when five million dollars' worth of gold smuggled out of occupied Kuwait needs to get from Morocco to Miami by boat with no questions asked, Paul Shanahan is the name on everyone's lips.

Except this time, Paul has other, more personal plans for the money. But first he must outwit the IRA, the CIA, British Intelligence and Palestinian terrorist Il Hayaween in order to prove how big a scoundrel he really is . . .